OREANDA-NEWS. February 26, 2009. The State Oil Fund of Azerbaijan (SOFAZ) budget 2009 has been developed.

SOFAZ Executive Director Shakhmar Movsumov said today at the press conference in Baku the Supervisory Board has considered the budget project.

“The project has been submitted to President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev for confirmation. The budget is expected to be confirmed within one or two days,” Movsumov said.

As per preliminary calculations, SOFAZ expenditures in 2008 made about AZN 5.7 billion. Budget 2009 is composed on the basis of average export oil price of USD 70 per barrel according to the country’s state budget. With this price, the Fund expected around USD 14 billion of revenues. If average price for oil makes USD 50 per barrel then the revenues will reduce to USD 9-10 billion. However that may be, SOFAZ does not expected its assets to decline in 2009.

Budget revenues of SOFAZ for 2008 reached AZN 11,864.7 million, while budget expenditures constituted AZN 4,291.8 million. The assets of SOFAZ as of January 1, 2009 have grown 4.3 fold compared to the beginning of the year and stood at AZN 8,986.7 million (USD 11,219.2 million).