Fitch affirms SOCAR's credit rating at 'BBB-'

Baku. 29 October. REPORT.AZ/ Fitch Ratings has affirmed State Oil Company of Azerbaijan Republic's (SOCAR) long-term Issuer Default Rating (IDR) at 'BBB-', short-term IDR at 'F3' and senior unsecured rating at 'BBB-'. The outlook on the long-term IDR is stable.

Report informs, SOCAR's ratings are aligned with the sovereign's. SOCAR is a mid-size integrated oil company with 2014 hydrocarbon production of 253 thousand barrels of oil equivalent per day (mboepd) and a number of assets in midstream, downstream, chemicals and retail. 

It is expected that SOCAR's leverage metrics may come under pressure in 2015-2016 under our oil price deck. We forecast funds from operations (FFO) net leverage will increase to 2.9x in 2015 from 1.9x in 2014.