SOFAZ's revenues from oil, gas fields hit $3.5 bn in 2020
By Ayya Lmahamad
Revenues of the State Oil Fund from the major oil and gas fields amounted to $3.5 billion for the period of January-October 2020, the Fund has reported.
According to the statement, revenues from the Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli block of fields, which are the largest oil fields in the Azerbaijani sector of the Caspian Sea, amounted to $3 billion, during the reporting period.
Moreover, the fund's revenues from the Shah Deniz field, which is among the world’s largest gas-condensate fields, amounted to $276 million, during the period of January-October this year. Revenues from the sale of condensate from Shah Deniz field amounted to $205 million.
Earlier it was reported that the Fund sold funds in the amount of $560.3 million at foreign currency auctions in October 2020. Likewise, the Fund has increased the gold reserve by 0.6 tons since the beginning of 2020. In addition, revenues of the State Oil Fund of Azerbaijan during first nine months of the year amounted to AZN 6.5 million ($3.8M), while budget expenditures to AZN 9 million ($5.2M).
SOFAZ was established in December 1999 by the Presidential Decree and is a sovereign wealth fund of Azerbaijan, which accumulates and preserves the nation's oil and gas revenues for future generations. The fundamental mission of SOFAZ is to ensure intergenerational equality with regard to the country's oil wealth and to accumulate and safeguard the oil revenues for generations to come.
The Fund accumulates income from the sale of oil contracts, and in 2003 it started to make transfers to the state budget of Azerbaijan. As for now, SOFAZ contribution to the country’s GDP is over 80 percent.
The contract for the development of Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli (ACG) oil fields was signed on September 20, 1994 and entered into force in December. The contract for the development of ACG block was extended to 2050 in September 2017.
The shareholders in the Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli project are BP (operator, 30.37 percent), SOCAR (25 percent), American Chevron (9.57 percent), ExxonMobil (6.79 percent), Indian ONGC (2.31 percent), Japanese Inpex Corp. (9.31 percent), ITOCHU Oil (3.65 percent), Norwegian Statoil (7.27 percent) and Turkish TPAO (5.73 percent).
The contract on development of Shah Deniz gas field was signed in 1996. Shareholders of Shah Deniz project are: BP (operator, 28.8 percent), TPAO (19 percent), SOCAR (16.7 percent), Petronas (15.5 percent), LUKOIL (10 percent) and NICO (10 percent).
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Ayya Lmahamad is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @AyyaLmahamad
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