Baku, Azerbaijan, June 1
Trend:
Azerbaijan has passed a very successful and honourable way in the oil and gas sphere since 1994, just like in all the spheres, said President Ilham Aliyev.
He made the remarks speaking at the opening of the 23rd International Caspian Oil & Gas Exhibition and Conference and the 6th Caspian International Power and Alternative Energy Exhibition. The events kicked off in Baku on June 1.
"All of our tasks have been fulfilled. No single planned project has been left unfinished," said President Aliyev. "We have implemented all the projects. Great efforts have been made and considerable amount of financial resources have been allocated for the implementation of these projects."
Ilham Aliyev pointed out that these major projects had been implemented in agreement with many countries. Producing oil from the Caspian Sea, delivering it to the coast and exporting to world markets were the main issues, and of course, it would be impossible to deal with those issues without international cooperation.
"Meanwhile, there had to be stability in the region. The trust of investors had to increase so that those projects would be implemented. Otherwise, neither the international financial structures, nor companies would make investments," Ilham Aliyev added.
He pointed out that serious work was done in this sphere and stability was fully ensured in Azerbaijan in mid-1990s.
"Investors trusted us and started to make billions of dollars of investments in Azerbaijan. We effectively benefited from these opportunities," said the president. "We directed the oil revenues to the non-oil sector."
Great efforts were made for the country's economic diversification, and currently, the oil factor accounts for around slightly more than 30 percent of Azerbaijan's GDP, he added.
The president noted that the major part of Azerbaijan's total revenues comes from the non-oil sector.
Therefore, the State Oil Fund was created in order to preserve and manage the transparent funds, said Ilham Aliyev, adding that currently, it is one of the most transparent and sovereign oil funds on a global scale.
President Aliyev said all the infrastructure and reconstruction work had one goal: to ensure economic diversification in Azerbaijan, to expand the business opportunities and to even more reduce the dependence on the oil and gas sector.
"Today, we are working on this issue as well, and the most important task for us is to fulfil our concept of sustainable and long-lasting economy so that not to depend in the future on the oil prices at all," said Ilham Aliyev.
Noting that Azerbaijan had quite different tasks in mid-1990s, the president said the country was supposed to deliver its oil and gas resources to the world markets at the maximum extent possible.
"It is not a coincidence that in less than two years after the signing of the Contract of the Century in 1994, a production sharing contract on the Shah Deniz gas field was inked in June 1996," he added.