Key highlights for the first half of 2025:

• SOFAZ's assets reached USD 66.5 billion, representing a 10.8% increase compared to the beginning of the year.
• The Fund recorded total revenues of 8.8 billion manats, while expenditures stood at 7.3 billion manats.
• Oil and gas revenues amounted to 5.7 billion manats.
• Investment return totaled 3.1 billion manats.
• SOFAZ transferred 7.2 billion manats to the state budget.

The State Oil Fund of the Republic of Azerbaijan (SOFAZ) reports that as of June 30, 2025, SOFAZ's assets increased by 10.8% totaling 66 515.6 million US dollars, compared to 60 031.4 million US dollars at the beginning of the year 2025.

During the period of January – June 2025, budgetary revenues for the period totaled 8 833.0 million manats, while budgetary expenses amounted to 7 278.6 million manats.

Budget revenues:

Oil and gas revenues. SOFAZ's revenue from oil and gas agreements totaled 5 743.2 million manats, consisting of:

• 4 974.3 million manats from the sale of oil and gas,
• 765.3 million manats from bonus payments and transit revenues,
• 3.6 million manats from acreage fee.

It should be noted that during the reporting period, SOFAZ received 4 427.3 million manats from the Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli (ACG) field and 423.3 million manats from the Shah Deniz field.

Investment return.The return from managing SOFAZ's assets amounted to 3 089.8 million manats.

Extra-budgetary revenues.SOFAZ's extra-budgetary revenues totaled 9 468.8 million manats, attributed to revaluations in exchange rates.

Budget expenditures:

Transfer to State budget. Within the framework of the 2025 SOFAZ budget implementation, a total of 7 240.5 million manats were transferred into the state budget during the reporting period.

Project expenditures. In January-June 2025, 24.3 million manats were allocated to the following ongoing projects:

• 4.2 million manats were directed to financing the "2019-2023 State Program on increasing the international competitiveness of the higher education system of Azerbaijan,"
• 20.1 million manats were allocated for the "State Program for the Education of Youth at Prestigious Universities of Foreign Countries for 2022-2028."

Operational expenditures.The operational expenditures of SOFAZ amounted to 13.8 million manats for the reporting period.

During the January–June 2025 period, SOFAZ sold a total of 3 718.1 million US dollars through auctions conducted in coordination with the Central Bank of the Republic of Azerbaijan.

Current state of financial markets and its impact on the portfolio

SOFAZ’s asset growth for the first half of 2025 was primarily driven by investment revenue as well as extra-budgetary revenues.

SOFAZ’s fixed income investments delivered positive returns in the second quarter. Although government bond yields were volatile throughout the period, they declined slightly on a net basis. Inflation slowed slightly across the US and Eurozone. A significant portion of the return is achieved through “carry” gains.

Global equity markets rebounded strongly by US stocks, following the early-quarter volatility driven by trade tensions. Despite persistent policy uncertainty, investor sentiment improved steadily, enabling major indices to record solid gains. This contributed to robust performance in SOFAZ’s public equity investments in the second quarter.

Gold continued its upward trajectory driven by geopolitical uncertainty and robust central bank purchases. Bullion traded at historic highs further enabling SOFAZ’s gold sub-portfolio to generate significant extra-budgetary revenue.