The Azerbaijani State Oil Fund (SOFAZ) revenues from the country’s major oil and gas fields amounted to $1.4 billion during the period of January-April 2021, Azernews reports. 

The Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli block of fields, which are the largest oil field in the Azerbaijani sector of the Caspian Sea, accounted for $1.4 billion of this revenue.

The fund’s revenues from the Shah Deniz field, which is among the world’s largest gas-condensate fields, amounted to $42.3 million in the first four months of the year.

Earlier it was reported that SOFAZ sold funds in the amount of $1.9 billion at foreign currency auctions during the reported period.

Its budget revenues amounted to AZN 3.1 billion ($1.8bn), while the budget expenditures constituted AZN 2.5 billion ($1.4bn) in the first quarter of 2021.

It should be noted that the fund's revenues from the country’s major oil and gas fields amounted to $3.8 billion in 2020, with Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli (ACG) accounting for $3.5 billion of this revenue and Shah Deniz for $293.9 million. 

Established in 1999, SOFAZ is a sovereign wealth fund, which accumulates and preserves Azerbaijan’s oil and gas revenues for future generations.

The Fund accumulates income from the sale of oil contracts, and in 2003 it started to make transfers to the state budget of Azerbaijan. As for now, SOFAZ's contribution to the country’s GDP is over 80 percent.

The contract for the development of the ACG oil fields was signed on September 20, 1994, and entered force in December. The contract for the development of the ACG block was extended to 2050 in September 2017.

The shareholders in the ACG project are BP (operator, 30.37 percent), SOCAR (25 percent), MOL (9.57 percent), INPEX (9.31 percent), Equinor (7.27 percent), ExxonMobil (6.79 percent), TPAO (5.73 percent), ITOCHU (3.65 percent), ONGC Videsh Limited (OVL) (2.31 percent).

The contract on the development of the Shah Deniz gas field was signed in 1996. Shareholders of Shah Deniz project are: BP (operator, 28.8 percent), TPAO (19 percent), AzSD (10 percent), SGC Upstream (6.7 percent), PETRONAS (15.5 percent), LUKOIL (10 percent) and NICO (10 percent).