Will SOCAR be able to raise its employees’ salary?

State Oil Company of Azerbaijan (SOCAR) will try to compensate damage from inflation at the expense of raise of its employees’ salary, SOCAR President Rovnag Abdullayev said at the meeting with young oilmen at Baku Business Centre at the end of last week.

“In 2007 they increased their salary by 25%. Later we will try to constantly increase salary. At present salary of SOCAR’s employees is rather high as compared to employees of other state companies,” Abdullayev said.

SOCAR President reminded that the company’s incomes also dropped, because of decline of oil prices at the world market and the budget does not have enough funds. “We will try to provide some help. But I would like to repeat that there is a great difference between salary of our employees and employees of other budget organizations,” Abdullayev said.

While analyzing SOCAR’s last audited report for 2014, Turan has come to conclusion that with low prices for hydrocarbons, SOCAR will have actually no free resources left to increase salaries of the company’s employees. With the oil production main item of expenses (16.4%) fell to the wages fund and with the gas production the wages fund gives way to the amortization allocations. Therefore, growth of wages affects cost price of oil and gas. According to SOCAR’s report, during 2014 average salary in the company was 882.08 AZN, twice up as compared to the salary throughout the country. For objective reasons (the fields  are at the last stage of development), this year production of hydrocarbons by SOCAR is expected to decline. –0---