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BP allocates 6m dollars
for Azeri social programmes in next 3 years
Text of report by Azerbaijani news agency Turan
Baku, 4 December: BP will allocate 6m dollars for social
and investment programmes in Azerbaijan over the next three
years, Phil Middleton, BP's environmental and social impact
assessment manager, said yesterday at a meeting with representatives
of non-governmental organizations in Azerbaijan.
He said that the company also planned to allocate 1.5m dollars
for the development of social and investment projects in Azerbaijan.
He noted that BP attached great importance to environment-related
issues and for this reason periodically provided training
in Baku for the projects' contractors.
Source: Turan news agency, Baku, in Russian 1540 gmt 4 Dec
02
BBC Mon TCU 041202 bk/nm
Azeri oil fund's supervisory
board approves draft budget
Excerpt from report by Azerbaijani news agency MPA
Baku, 18 November: A sitting of the supervisory board of
the State Oil Fund of the Azerbaijani Republic (SOFAR) with
the participation of Prime Minister Artur Rasizada, First
Deputy Speaker Arif Rahimzada, First Deputy President of SOCAR
[State Oil Company of the Azerbaijani Republic] considered
SOFAR's draft budget for 2003, foreign currency contents of
the fund's investment portfolio including a report of the
executive director of the fund for the management of SOFAR's
foreign currency resources.
As SOFAR's executive director Samir Sarifov told reporters,
the draft budget of the fund for 2003 was approved and would
be sent for the president's endorsement
The income and expenditure parts of the draft budget is predicted
to be 1,182bn [243m dollars] manats and 1,141bn [235m dollars]
manats respectively. The most substantial part of the revenue
will come from the sale of profit oil and it will amount to
735bn [151m dollars] manats (62 per cent of the income part
of the budget). The oil price, fixed in the state budget with
some additions, is the basis of the budget forecasts. If the
price for a barrel of oil is 19.5 dollars in the state budget,
SOFAR sticks to 21 dollars because revenues into the fund
mainly come from the sale of Azari light oil.
[Passage omitted: Fund allocated money to refugees and financed
SOCAR's share in the Baku-Ceyhan oil pipeline]
Sarifov also said that members of the supervisory board had
decided to keep the fund's foreign currency in dollars (65
per cent), euros (30 per cent) and pounds (5 per cent).
Source: MPA news agency, Baku, in Russian 0814 gmt 18 Nov
02
BBC Mon TCU 181102 ha/fm AZERI-FUND-OIL
EBRD to finance Azeri share in major gas project
Text of report by Azerbaijani news agency MPA
Baku, 8 November: "The EBRD [European Bank for Reconstruction
and Development] has agreed to finance SOCAR's [State Oil
Company of the Azerbaijani Republic] 10-per-cent share in
the project of the development of the Sah Daniz natural gas
field and has submitted to SOCAR its proposals to that effect,"
SOCAR President Natiq Aliyev has told MPA.
He said that the terms for financing SOCAR's share, which
stands at around 320m dollars, would be defined by February
2003 (before the sanctioning of the project). The sanctioning
of the project may be delayed if the financing of the project
is not defined by February, which will lead to the reconsideration
of the new programme [project concept was reviewed recently]
and, accordingly, the date for the first gas supplies to Turkey.
SOCAR's head cited as an example the financing of SOCAR's
share in the Baku-Ceyhan pipeline project from the State Oil
Fund of Azerbaijan. International financial institutions opposed
this. In Aliyev's opinion, the same questions will arise this
time as well. Azerbaijan is also considering domestic sources
of funding. The only possibilities are the Oil Fund or a decision
to use the profit (10 per cent in the Azari-Ciraq-Gunasli
project) from the Ciraq project.
Source: MPA news agency, Baku, in Russian 1207 gmt 8 Nov
02
BBC
Azeri president makes changes to oil fund budget for 2002
Text of report by Azerbaijani news agency Turan
Baku, 4 November: Under a decree, the Azerbaijani president
has made changes to the budget of the Azerbaijani Oil Fund
for 2002. According to these changes, the income part of the
fund has been increased by 300bn manats [62m dollars] - to
1,180bn manats [242m dollars] - thanks to transfers of oil
bonuses from the hard currency reserves of the National Bank.
The expenses of the fund have also increased from 153bn manats
[31m dollars] to 523bn manats [108m dollars]. Of these, 219bn
manats [45m dollars] will be spent on improving the accommodation
of refugees in line with presidential decrees, while 300bn
manats [62m dollars] will be spent on funding the SOCAR [State
Oil Company of the Azerbaijani Republic] share in the construction
of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline.
Under the decree, the Ministry of Economic Development receives
the right to state ownership of a company affiliated to SOCAR,
which owns shares in the construction of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan
oil pipeline, while dividends are transferred to the Oil Fund.
Source: Turan news agency, Baku, in Russian 1551 gmt 4 Nov
02
BBC
Two European banks chosen to manage Azeri state oil fund
Text of report by Azerbaijani news agency Turan
Baku, 29 October: The issue of managing the assets of SOFAR
[the State Oil Fund of the Azerbaijani Republic] will be resolved
in the near future. Two banks from Switzerland and Germany
have been chosen so far, the executive director of SOFAR,
Samir Sarifov, has told journalists. At the same time, he
rejected to name the banks, saying that negotiations were
still under way.
Source: Turan news agency, Baku, in Russian 0730 gmt 29 Oct
02
BBC
Azeri Oil Fund allocates 60m dollars for Baku-Ceyhan in
2002
Text of report by Azerbaijani news agency Turan
Baku, 28 October: Sixty million dollars are to be allocated
by the end of 2002 for financing SOCAR's [State Oil Company
of the Azerbaijani Republic] share in the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan
project, Samir Sarifov, executive director of the State Oil
Fund of the Azerbaijani Republic (SOFAR), has told journalists.
Sarifov said that the money would be allocated twice a month.
A total of 16m dollars had been paid by 25 October and now
preparations are under way to pay 10m dollars more.
In all, it is necessary to pay 250m dollars to cover SOCAR's
30-percent share in the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan project. SOCAR
itself has paid 70m dollars, the National Bank of Azerbaijan
will pay 118m dollars from the remains of oil bonuses and
SOFAR will cover 62m dollars. "This means that 100m dollars
are planned to be transferred to SOCAR in 2003 and the payments
from the Oil Fund assets to finance SOCAR's share in the pipeline
will start in July next year," Sarifov stressed.
Source: Turan news agency, Baku, in Russian 0755 gmt 28 Oct
02
BBC
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