SOFAZ sold US$ 246.0mn in FX auctions in December 2016
At FX auctions organized by CBAR, State Oil Fund of Azerbaijan Republic sold US$ 246.0mn in December 2016, 18.4% less than in the previous month and the lowest amount of the last ten months. Our calculations indicate that SOFAZ has sold US$ 4.9bn in 2016, corresponding to AZN 7.8bn, which in turn amounts to 72.8% of the budgeted expenditure of SOFAZ for 2016.
According to SOFAZ’s 2016 budget, the Fund’s total expenditures in 2016 were budgeted at AZN 10.7bn, of which transfers to the state budget were set at AZN 7.6bn.
Oil price up while exports down
According to SOCAR, BTC FOB Ceyhan crude oil price was up 17.8% m/m (+42.5% y/y) to US$ 54.9 per barrel in December 2016. However, crude oil exports were down 12.1% m/m (-26.8% y/y) to 1.5mn tons in December 2016. Overall, exports in 2016 were down 7.3% y/y to 20.4mn tons.
Based on SOCAR data, our calculations indicate that receipts from crude oil exports were up 3.8% m/m (+4.1% y/y) to US$ 0.6bn in December 2016. In annual terms, however, export receipts were down 22.2% y/y in 2016.
