Azernews.Az

By Sara Israfilbayova

Azerbaijan’s state oil company SOCAR will soon begin to export Russian oil products from the Black Sea port of Tuapse city.

SOCAR signed a deal with the Vienna-based Cetracore Energy oil trading company and its shareholder, Russia’s Rosneft oil company.

"According to the terms of the deal, SOCAR will act as an off-taker of oil products from the port of Tuapse, and by the end of this month, SOCAR will ship the first cargo of about 100,000 tons of vacuum gas oil, most part of which will be sent to Greece," the source said.

Moreover, SOCAR also intends to ship 60,000 tons of naphtha purchased directly from Rosneft.

SOCAR and Rosneft have signed an agreement in 2014 to establish a joint venture to explore and produce oil and gas in Azerbaijan, Russia and third countries. Rosneft also showed interest in the development of the Azerbaijani Absheron gas field in the Caspian Sea.

SOCAR is a wholly state-owned national oil company headquartered in Baku, Azerbaijan. The company produces oil and natural gas from onshore and offshore fields in the Azerbaijani section of the Caspian Sea.

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

Currently, SOCAR is the only producer of petroleum products in the country, and operates more than 370 petrol stations in Switzerland, Georgia, Romania and Ukraine.

Rosneft is the leader of Russia’s petroleum industry and the world’s largest publicly traded petroleum company. Company’s main activities include prospecting and exploration of hydrocarbon deposits, oil, gas and gas-condensate production, upstream offshore projects, processing, as well as oil, gas, and product marketing in Russia and abroad.

The Company is included in the list of strategic companies and organizations of Russia. Company’s largest shareholder is JSC ROSNEFTEGAZ, fully owned by the Russian Government, while BP holds 19.75 percent of shares, QHG Shares Pte. Ltd. holds 19.5 percent of shares, one share belongs to the state represented by Federal Agency for State Property Management, whereas the remaining shares are free floating.

The Company’s key priorities include development of the resource potential and efficient exploitation of mineral resources while strictly complying with environmental safety standards and widely implementing state-of-the-art technologies.

As a result of successful geological exploration, in 2016, 13 fields and 127 new deposits were discovered. All operations under the program were performed to a high standard.

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