SOCAR Trading SA, the marketing arm of the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan Republic (SOCAR), plans to enter the Latin American market, the company’s CEO Arzu Azimov said June 20 in his interview with the Swiss French-language newspaper L’AGEFI.

“Recently, we have opened two branches in Calgary (Canada) and Houston (the US) for trade operations with oil and oil products,” said the CEO.

He noted SOCAR Trading also strengthens the independence of its subsidiary in Singapore.

“As energy suppliers, we are also expanding our customer network in Europe,” said Azimov. “In general, our trade relations with third parties account for 85 percent of the total amount of SOCAR Trading’s revenues.”

Headquartered in Geneva, SOCAR Trading was incorporated in December 2007 as the marketing arm of SOCAR with a mandate to market Azerbaijani barrels produced from the Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli field and other surrounding fields in Azerbaijan.

While the company continues to market the bulk of SOCAR crude oil export volumes from Ceyhan port in Turkey, it has also been able to develop significant third party volumes through both leveraging its system barrels, as well as its experienced traders developing new business. SOCAR Trading's activities cover countries of Europe, Asia and the US.