USACC, DC
8 Mar 2005

U.S. Azerbaijan Chamber of Commerce :: :: President Approves Budget
of State Oil Fund

President Approves Budget of State Oil Fund

03/11/2005

On March 2, the President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev approved the
State Oil Fund’s (SOFAZ) budget for 2005 with revenues estimated at
1.078 trillion manat ($220 million) and expenditures of 1.073
trillion manat ($219 million).

SOFAZ along with the National Bank of Azerbaijan holds the currency
reserves of Azerbaijan, which exceeded $1.7 billion in January 2005,
of which $970.5 million were at SOFAZ, some $155 million higher than
at the beginning of 2004.

In 2004, the fund’s revenues were $329.6 million against expenditures
of $174.7 million.

In 2005, SOFAZ plans to receive 849.6 billion manat ($173.4 million)
from sales of Azerbaijan’s quota of profit oil from the
Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli offshore fields, 43.4 billion manat ($8.8
million) from acreage payments, 73.9 billion manat ($16.2 million)
from oil transit through the Baku-Supsa pipeline, and 110.7 billion
($22.5 million) from asset management.

Within its expenditures, 202 billion manat ($41.2 million) will be
allocated to refugees and IDPs (Internally Displaced Persons)
affected by the Nagorno Karabakh conflict with Armenia, 105 billion
manat ($21.4 million) will go towards financing Azerbaijan’s stake in
the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline and 750 billion manat ($153
million) will be transferred to the state coffers.

Source: Caspian Business News