President Ilham Aliyev Attended Opening of New Administrative Building of State Oil Company

The opening of the new administrative building of the State Oil Company of the Republic of Azerbaijan (SOCAR) has been held on May 30. President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev attended the ceremony. SOCAR Tower is the highest building in Baku and one of the grandiose infrastructure projects, which turned the capital of Azerbaijan into one of the world’s beautiful cities. The foundation stone of the building was laid with the participation of the President of Azerbaijan on October 12, 2010.

President Ilham Aliyev cut the ribbon symbolizing the opening of the building.

President of SOCAR Rovnag Abdullayev informed the Head of State about the conditions created here. The work on building design was started in 2007. French, Italian, British, Korean, Turkish and Azerbaijani companies presented their proposals to the contest. In terms of modernism, efficiency of functional features, architectural image of the city, as well as technical requirements by the State Oil Company, the designing work based on the concept of “wind and fire” by Korea’s Heerim Architects & Planners Co. LTD was chosen and in March, 2010 SOCAR issued a tender among the construction companies. Turkey’s TEKFEN Inshaat won the competition. The five-year construction work created one of the most beautiful architectures in the city.

On the ground floor, there are an exhibition of the photos displaying the activity of National Leader Heydar Aliyev and President Ilham Aliyev and bas-relief of the national leader.

SOCAR’s new administrative building meets all contemporary international standards and security requirements. It has unified system of security and technical measures. The 200-meter building has 42 floors, including two underground floors, covering an area of five hectares. The offices of management locate on 34-37 floors, head office departments and boards on 18-33 floor, the offices of structural divisions on 3-16 floors. The building design was based on a composite system of steel construction with reinforced concrete walls. It is resistible to 9-magnitude earthquake and rated at 190 km/h wind according to the results of virtual tests in Canadian international laboratory.

There are three conference halls, two fitness centers, 450-seat dining room and 130-seat cafeteria, as well as a library. It has two parking areas, 1045-place on underground floor and 240-place above ground. According to the wind-tunnel test, the building has a dumping system for limitation of shaking amplitude. The crane with telescopic basket installed on the roof was designed for front-face clearing and other services. There are two-cabin elevators and automated central navigation system.

The new administrative building has important functional advantages for SOCAR. The integrated system of services will reduce logistic expenditures and the integrated coordinating and controlling systems will have positive impact on effectiveness of the working process.