Azerbaijani state oil company eyes USD 10 billion in investments

Azerbaijani state oil company SOCAR plans a USD 10 billion investment program over the next seven or eight years, according to the company’s first vice president Khoshbakht Yusifzadeh.

In May SOCAR opened a new oil terminal in Kulevi, Georgia, which was purchased in the initial stages of construction from late business tycoon Badri Patarkatsishvili in 2006.

“In the oil terminal complex in Kulevi alone we have invested USD 350 million and we have acquired 51 percent [of Turkish petrochemicals company Petkim] at USD 2.04 billion. For the next seven to eight years SOCAR will pursue a USD 10 billion investment program,” Azerbaijani news agency quoted Yusifzadeh as saying.

Last month SOCAR president Rovnag Abdullayev announced that the company planned to purchase a 50 percent share of Turkish construction company Tekfen.

“SOCAR is interested in the participation of its construction company in Turkish projects,” Abdullayev said, adding that the company plans to build an oil terminal in Ceyhan.