Details added (first version posted at 12:36).
BAKU, Azerbaijan, Dec. 11
Trend:
President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev has received Chief Executive Officer of BP Robert Dudley.
Expressing his gratitude to the head of state for the reception, Robert Dudley said: Mr President, thank you very much for hosting us today.
President Ilham Aliyev said: Welcome back to Azerbaijan. I was informed that you already announced that you will be leaving your position next year. I would like to use this opportunity to express gratitude to you for your contribution to the development of your business in Azerbaijan. We discussed with you many times the importance of our joint projects and as far as I know in the BP list of priorities these projects are in the top position and as you know, our cooperation with BP has a strategic importance.
I had many times publicly made comments on that and I am very glad and proud that this 25 years of partnership really was a partnership of friends, of partners which had the same goal, and which made very efficient steps in order to reach these goals. This is very important. Sometimes the goals are identified but it is not clear how to reach them. In our case, in a very difficult geopolitical situation in the early 1990s we managed to implement historical projects together, Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC), development of Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli (ACG), Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum pipeline and now TANAP which was completed just recently.
Each of these projects has its historical importance for Azerbaijan and today the rapid development of Azerbaijan wouldn’t have been possible without revenues which we get from energy sector. And during all these years, really we worked as partners, supporting each other, understanding the problems of each other, and I think it is a unique experience in the world.
Now, we are close to completion of all the major projects. I am very glad to participate at TANAP connection with European market. Now we have to work in order to complete TAP which is very close to completion- 90 percent is done- and also other projects of BP, because our partnership will continue after the extension of ACG up to 2050. We will have another active 30 years of cooperation and more. So, it will be more strategic than it is today. Once again, Mr. President, I would like to express gratitude to you for your personal contribution for your partnership and wish you success and hope to see you more in the future as our dear guest.