State Oil Fund of the Republic of Azerbaijan (SOFAZ) is planning to invest in equities to increase the diversification and profitability of the investment portfolio. According to the 2012 Investment Policy of SOFAZ aproved by the decree of the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan dated December 29, 2011, up to 5% of the Investment portfolio of SOFAZ can be invested in equities in 2012.

State Customs Committee has transferred AZN 77,785.2 mln funds to the state budget during January, 2012, up AZN 7.6 mln or 11% from year earlier.  According to SCC, AZN 9,665,500 were transferred to the state budget as customs duties, AZN 62,327.58 thousand as VAT, AZN 4,725.59 thousand were collected on excises, AZN 1,066.5 thousand on road taxes. Customs duties decreased by 35%, charges on VAT rose 19%, on excises – 2.1 times and on road taxes – 30% compared to a year earlier.

Oil companies operating in Georgia increased gasoline prices. All companies increased the price of gasoline by 5 Tetri, which is about 3 cents. Now gasoline costs 2.15-2.30 lari ($ 1 = 1.66 lari) in Georgia, depending on the quality of gasoline. As the Union of Importers, Exporters and Producers of Petroleum Products of Georgia said, the cause of an increase in prices of petroleum products is the situation in the international market.

Trans Anatolia pipeline is not against Nabucco, the President of State Oil Company Rovnag Abdullayev told reporters. He stressed that, no financial problems would be observed in TANAP: “80% of project belongs to Azerbaijan, 20% - to BOTAS-TPAO companies. If we will have not any problem with financing of project, it’s planed to invite the great companies for financing of project”.

The Forum will be held on SOCAR's initiative at the Hilton hotel in Baku on April 10-12. The construction project of the big oil, gas processing and petrochemical complex in Azerbaijan will be discussed within the forum. Iteca Caspian and INBC Consulting are the organizers of the forum. The forum will be conducted under the information support of Trend Agency and the largest information portals Day.az and Milli.az.

The Heydar Aliyev International Airport operates in the normal mode, CJSC Azerbaijan Airlines spokesman Maharram Safarli told Trend on Friday. "International Airport operates in normal mode. There is no problem in dispatch and arrival of aircrafts," Safarli said. In particular, he said flights to Istanbul, Moscow, Paris and Milan are sent this morning, and flight to Nakhchivan is currently being prepared to departure.

Nabucco Gas Pipeline International submitted the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Report to the Turkish Ministry of Environment and Urbanization. According to the statement of Nabucco Gas Pipeline International, published on its official website, the EIA report for the 760 km long section between Ankara and Turkish-Bulgarian Border was prepared according the format determined by the ministry in its decision given in July 2010.

Tax and state fees in Azerbaijan started to be paid in online regime in accordance with the order of Minister of Taxes Fazil Mammadov. According to APA-ECONOMICS, Deputy Minister of Taxes Sahib Alekberov, taxes and state fees can be paid from any places.

Bad weather conditions do not cause any problem in conducting oil and gas operations in Azerbaijan, the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan (SOCAR) told Trend on Tuesday. According to the report, the work is carried out both on onshore and offshore oil and gas fields in normal mode. Also, all processing and production units of oil and gas industry operate in normal mode. "Bad weather has not affected the oil and gas sector. Extraction, drilling, production and export operations are carried out in normal mode," SOCAR said.

State Oil Company of Azerbaijan has completed debut Eurobond transaction successfully. According to SOCAR, placement of Eurobonds was interested by investors and consequently, volume of issue ordered by 290 investors made $4.6 bln.  Volume of issue was $500 mln, annual YTM – 5.45%. The maturity date is until 2017.  Joint Lead Managers are Citi Group Global Markets Ltd, Deutsche Bank AG (London branch) and The Royal Bank of Scotland Plc. Co-Managers are Nomura International Plc. and Societe Generale S.A.Trustee is Deutsche Trustee Company Ltd. Principal Paying and Transfer Agent is Deutsche Bank AG (London branch).