The story
The State Oil Fund of the Republic of Azerbaijan (SOFAZ) was established by Heydar Aliyev's Decree No. 240 dated December 29, 1999. Statute of the State Oil Fund was approved by the Decree of the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan No. 434 dated December 29, 2000.
Funds from SOFAZ are frequently transferred to make up for state deficits.
Azerbaijani banks purchased nearly $5 billion foreign currency from SOFAZ in 2016. In 2018, SOFAZ sold more than $5.8 billion foreign currency to Azerbaijani banks.
In 2020, the Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli (ACG) oil fields recorded their lowest profits since 2003 at $3.52 billion, with SOFAZ receiving about $5 billion from oil sales that year. In 2022, revenue from oil and gas sales of the ACG and Shah Deniz gas field increased by 65.4% to $11.3 billion compared to 2021. In 2024, the revenue generated by SOFAZ from the sale of oil from the ACG field was US$ 5,725 billion. SOFAZ owns 25% of the shares amongst BP, ExxonMobil, Amoco, Unocal, Statoil, McDermott and others.
As of 30 June 2026, SOFAZ reported assets under management of $72.6 billion, reflecting an increase of 16.9% since the beginning of the year, driven by investment returns, currency movements, and asset allocation.
SOFAZ Executive Director Israfil Mammadov signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Hassana Investment Company in October 2024 to discuss investment in Saudi Arabia.
In 2024, SOFAZ sold $7.128 billion foreign currency for 12.1 billion manats.
Executive Director
The operational management of the Fund's activities is carried out by the Executive Director, who is appointed and dismissed by the President. As of 2018, the executive director reports to the President. There have been three executive directors since 2001:
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Samir Sharifov (January 3, 2001 – April 18, 2006)
Shahmar Movsumov (May 15, 2006 – November 29, 2019)
Israfil Mammadov (November 29, 2019 – present)
Supervisory Board
The President of Azerbaijan appoints the members of a Supervisory Board, who are de facto powerless. The board comprises 7 key officials including the Prime Minister, Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly, Assistants to the President of Azerbaijan – Head of Economic Affairs and Innovative Development Policy, and Head of Economic Policy and Industrial Affairs departments of the Presidential Administration, Minister of Finance, Minister of Economy, and the Chairman of the Central Bank of Azerbaijan.
Subsidiaries
SOFAZ owns 12 subsidiaries. Five are located on the channel island of Jersey, four in Luxembourg and one each in Russia, France and Japan.
From Wikipedia’s article on State Oil Fund of Azerbaijan, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4