A ceremony to lay the foundation of a new office building of the State Oil Company of the Azerbaijan Republic (SOCAR) has been held in Heydar Aliyev Avenue of Baku.

President Ilham Aliyev attended the ceremony.

First, the head of state watched video footage and images, as well as a sketch and a model of the future building.

SOCAR President Rovnag Abdullayev said the new office building, fully meeting the needs of the company, would meet modern international standards. The 200-meter-high building will have 40 storeys and two underground levels. It will cover an area of 5 hectares. The building will have a composite steel structure with reinforced concrete walls. The design of the building, intended to be resistant to earthquakes measuring 9 on the Richter scale, was tested in a virtual environment in a special international lab in Canada and designed to withstand wind speed 190 km an hour.

The building, designed by South Korean company Heerim Architects & Planners Co. Ltd on the basis of the “wind and fire” concept, will be built by Turkish company TEKFEN Insaat.

The head of state lowered a capsule into the basement and poured a concrete solution over it.

Then President Ilham Aliyev congratulated the ceremony participants.