TURAN,
17, April 2008

Azerbaijan's body holding oil revenues anticipates its proceeds to rise to 10 billion manats ($12 billion) against the previously-predicted 3.6 billion manats by the end of 2008 due to rising world crude prices.

"The revenues will come from the sale of oil due to the increase in its exports," Executive Director of the State Oil Fund (SOFAR) Shahmar Movsumov told a quarterly news conference on Thursday.

He said the first quarter of 2008 was successful. As of April 1, the fund's assets increased $860.4m to reach $3.336bn.

Movsumov said that as in previous years, the sales of profit oil accounted for most of the revenues. The figure made up 1.079bn manats ($1.3bn), or 97 per cent of the fund's overall revenues, in Q1. Profit oil was produced from the major Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli fields in the Caspian Sea. Since late 2007, the profits made from Azerbaijan's biggest offshore gas field Shahdaniz began to flow in as well, the fund's executive director said.

In January-March, SOFAR's revenues made up over 1.116bn manats (1.344bn), while expenses - 438.4m manats ($528m).

50 per cent of SOFAR's assets is kept in US dollars, while 40 per cent - in euros, and 5 per cent in pounds. Other currencies account for the rest of the amount.