Azerbaijan’s state oil company loses $800 mln

The price of the Turkish Petkim oil-chemical complex, which the SOCAR state oil company of Azerbaijan bought in 2008, declined by 40%, and the price of shares which were bought for $2,05 billion fell to $800 million, Azadliq paper reported. 

When asked whether it was possible to predict it, Ilham Shaban, an economist and expert, said: “Though it was expectable that the price of the world known companies wouldn’t fall in parallel to oil companies, the crisis has strongly changed the situation.”

“This was a very risky period. Those days everyone thought that times of cheap oil passed. Now they say that a false price growth was registered those days,” said Ilham Shaban.

He confirmed that the state oil company of Azerbaijan took the risks. “This is an investment-related risk. Because of that risk, the SOCAR has lost $800 million,” he said and added that the SOCAR was taking these steps to hide marks of another corruption fact.