Department of Marketing and Economic Operations of SOCAR

The Marketing and Operations Department was established for the purpose of marketing crude oil and petroleum products for SOCAR in Azerbaijan and foreign countries.Its predecessors were the Department of Foreign Trade (which was established in 1994) and the "Azernefttejhizat" Union (established in 1997). The new Department was established by Decree No. 844 of the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan of January 2003 and SOCAR Order No. 25 of March 31, 2003.The Department also markets hydrocarbons produced by the Operators of Joint Ventures and Production Sharing Agreements to which SOCAR is a party. The purpose of the Marketing and Operations Department is to market oil and petroleum products effectively and capture new markets.

Activities of the Marketing and Operations Department

Oil is exported on 3 pipelines - the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan export pipeline, Baku-Supsa, and Baku-Novorossiysk. Azeri Light crude from the Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli Fields is exported on the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan and Baku-Supsa pipelines. Crude oil from SOCAR fields is exported on the Baku-Novorossiysk pipeline.The Department also exports petroleum products such as A-92 gasoline, L-62 (D-01) diesel, and TS-1 jet fuel. The Georgian market is a primary export destination for petroleum products and is the responsibility of the SOCAR Georgia Petroleum company. Large volumes of petroleum products are exported from SOCAR's Kulevi Terminal. Petroleum products are also exported to Asia.

Domestic sales of petroleum products

The Department is also responsible for domestic sales of petroleum products. The Department has 11 distribution facilities and 1 transportation facility. Petroleum products are shipped by rail from the transportation facility to the distribution facilities and major customers. Special trucks carry petroleum products from the distribution facilities to consumers.The Department has the international certificates ISO 14001:2004 (Environmental Management System), OHSAS 18001:2007 (HSE Management System), and ISO 9001:2008 (Quality Control System) for the exportation of crude oil and petroleum products and domestic sales of petroleum products from distribution facilities.

As in other SOCAR departments, since 2008 the Marketing and Operations Department has been using SAP ERP accounting, reporting, and financial software. The FI (Financial/Accounting) GL (Major Book), AP (accounts payable), AR (accounts receivable), CO (accounting control), BL (bank transactions), HR (management of human resources), MM and SD (sales and distribution) modules are used for accounting and reporting purposes in accordance with IFRS (International Financial Reporting Standards). At present, TRM components (treasury and cash flow) of the new FSCM module of the SAP ERP system are being used.