SOCAR may put up shares in its JVs for sale

By Azernews

By Nigar Abbasova

Azerbaijan’s state oil company SOCAR may put up for sale the shares of a number of its joint ventures.  

SOCAR President Rovnag Abdullayev said that the company may put up for sale a small part of the shares, while the process will not have any influence on the control package of the shares.

He mentioned that this will give an opportunity to provide the population with additional tools for investing.

Abdullayev further said that the company is currently in talks with the Baku Stock Exchange in this regard. He emphasized that SOCAR itself has no plans to conduct initial public offering.

SOCAR includes such production associations as Azneft (the enterprises producing oil and gas onshore and offshore), Azerkimya (the chemical enterprises) and Azerigas (distributor of gas) as well as oil and gas processing plants, service companies, and the facilities involved in geophysical and drilling operations.

The company, which has 36 joint enterprises, is the sole producer of oil products in Azerbaijan.

SOCAR’s assets currently stand at 40 billion Azerbaijani manats ($ 25.04) its share capital is 13.5 billion manats ($ 8.4) and authorized capital is 1.6 billion manats ($ 1.01).