The State Oil Company of Azerbaijan (SOCAR) announced in a statement on Friday that the company's stock shares will be offered to public from Sept. 20 onward. In the statement, it is written that SOCAR, with the experience it has obtained from the international financial markets, aims for further development of Azerbaijan's financial market and to present the new investment scope to Azerbaijan citizens.

While the information on the amount of stock shares to be offered was not provided, it was said that dollar shares will bring annual profit of 5 percent. SOCAR's stock shares to be offered to the public will be tax exempt and interest-free will be payed to the shareholders once every three months.

Details about SOCAR stock shares will be announced on Sept. 16. Meanwhile, SOCAR has been carrying out its activities in Turkey under the name of SOCAR Turkey Enerji A.Ş. since Dec. 12, 2011.

Azerbaijani energy giant SOCAR holds a 58 percent share in the Trans Anatolian Pipeline project (TANAP), while Turkey's BOTAŞ has a 30 percent share and BP owns a 12 percent stake. TANAP is planned to be operational in 2018, with an initial capacity of 16 billion cubic meters (bcm) of Azerbaijani gas from the Shah Deniz fields to flow through Georgia to Turkey. While 6 bcm are designated for domestic gas consumption in Turkey, the remainder is destined for transfer to Greece, Albania, Italy and further into Europe. The total capacity for TANAP is planned to increase to 23 bcm by 2023, and to 31 bcm by 2026. Through this project, Turkey is considered to be taking one of the most important steps towards being an energy hub of its region.