Baku News

19 December 2007 - APA - The Center of Social and Economic Development held a presentation of a report on effective use of assets of the State Oil Fund of Azerbaijan in Baku Wednesday. The head of the center Vugar Bayramov, who delivered speech during the presentation, announced that the experience of foreign countries, in particular, Norway and Kazakhstan, as well as the activity of the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan, were analyzed during the research. He stressed the necessity to impose a limit on the volume of the Fund's transfers to the state budget. He cited Norway, where the transfers of the oil fund to the budget may not exceed 4% of the yearly revenues of the fund, as an example. Bayramov also noted that special criteria for effective use of oil revenues, as well as criteria for structures, which receive the assets of the State Oil Fund, had been developed. The said criteria are proposed to be applied in project financing. V.Bayramov also announced that oil sector will make up 56% of the GDP at the year-end. He forecasts Azerbaijan's oil production to reach 450 million barrels in 2008. He said the revenues of the State Oil Fund of Azerbaijan had made up $2.7 billion and expenses $ 1.1 billion in 2007. The assets of the fund were used at the construction of the Oguz-Gabala water pipeline, reconstruction of the Samur canal, creation of the state investment company and others. The report development engaged experts of the Washington University and the Minnesota University of the United States. The report has been worked out in the framework of the project of Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative.