OREANDA-NEWS. October 20, 2009. The State Oil Fund of the Azerbaijan Republic (SOFAZ) offered optimistic prognosis for 2009.

SOFAZ Director Shahmar Movsumov said that the budget of the fund for 2009 was forecasted on the basis of USD 70 per 1 barrel of oil, however, oil prices from the beginning of year did not exceed USD 35 per barrel and it influenced on profits of the fund.

“Despite that oil price is fixed at USD 70 per barrel over last 3-4 months, it was lower summarizing the results of 6 months and therefore average cost of entered and sold by the fund cost of oil makes up USD 54. In this connection, there will be deficit on the item profits on income from sale of oil,’’ S. Movsumov said.

Nevertheless, funds in the use of the fund grew approximately by USD 2 bn from the beginning of the year.

“Summarizing the results of the year this index is forecasted on the level of USD 14 bn,” S. Movsumov said.

On 1st October, 2009, the assets of the fund made up USD 13.337 bn.