The State Oil Company of Azerbaijan (SOCAR) does not need a bitumen shop in any region of Armenia and has no interests in this country at all.
Ibrahim Ahmadov, Deputy Head of the Public Relations and Events Department of the company, told Report in a comment on the Armenian media reports about SOCAR's desire to procure a joint Armenian-Russian venture - a bitumen plant in Surenavan village of Armenia’s Ararat region.
"Such absurd claims do not correspond to the scale of SOCAR. SOCAR is a global brand of Azerbaijan, the largest foreign investor in Turkey, the largest taxpayer in Azerbaijan and Georgia, a company operating in Europe, a leading force in such large international projects as the Southern Gas Corridor," I. Ahmadov said.
Earlier, the Armenian newspaper Hraparak, citing its sources, wrote that SOCAR wants to buy the bitumen plant in Armenia. The newspaper claims that the company, which is one of the largest taxpayers in Azerbaijan, is negotiating through Georgia’s mediation.
The plant in Ararat began work in 2006, and a year and a half after the “velvet revolution” in Armenia, it ceased operations. The new government bought raw materials mainly from Iran for road construction, and did not need the products of the bitumen plant. Currently, there are only a few employees left here, and the telephone numbers of the enterprise are not answered. Therefore, the publication could not receive an official comment on this issue.