SOCAR investment in Romania exceeds 50 million euros

By Aynur Jafarova

Azerbaijan's state energy company SOCAR has international experience in implementation of large-scale projects which can contribute to achieving common European targets in the energy field.

This remark was made by SOCAR Head Rovnag Abdullayev during his visit to Romania which took place on the invitation of Romanian Prime Minister Victor Ponta.

"Europe is facing many challenges in diversifying supply sources, which is important for ensuring the energy security, that allows to provide the competitiveness of industry, economy and infrastructure," Abdullayev noted.

CEO of SOCAR in Romania Hamza Karimov, for his part, said the volume of investment by SOCAR in Romania exceeded 50 million euros, which paved the way to open 320 new working places here.

Azerbaijan's energy giant SOCAR, which is keen on expanding operations in the retail oil products market abroad is involved in exploring oil and gas fields, producing, processing, and transporting oil, gas, and gas condensate, marketing petroleum and petrochemical products in the domestic and international markets, and supplying natural gas to industry and the public in Azerbaijan.

The company entered the Romanian market by buying local filling stations from Romtranspetrol and re-branding them in 2011. Becoming one of the most important players on the fuel distribution in the northeast of Romania, SOCAR plans to bring the number of its gas stations in Romania to 100.

Since the beginning of 2014 SOCAR opened eight new stations in Romania. The 27th filling station in the country was commissioned on March 21, 2014.