By Azernews

By Ayya Lmahamad

The State Oil Fund of Azerbaijan (SOFAZ) auctioned $288 million in May, the fund’s press service reports.

As a whole, in 2022, SOFAZ sold funds in the amount of $2.4 billion at foreign currency auctions.

The fund's revenues from the major oil and gas fields amounted to $3.3 billion from January to April 2022. Of these, revenues from the Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli block of fields, which are the largest oil fields in the Azerbaijani sector of the Caspian Sea, amounted to $2.8 billion, while the fund's revenues from the Shah Deniz field, which is among the world’s largest gas-condensate fields, amounted to $405.4 million.

The fund's budget revenues and expenditures respectively totaled AZN 2.9 billion ($1.7bn) and AZN 2.7 billion ($1.5bn) in the first quarter of 2022.

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.