Azerbaijan, Baku /corr. Trend S.Aliyev / The Day of Oil Workers and 13th Anniversary of signing the Contract of Century to develop the large-scale fields Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli will be marked on 20 September. The Day of Oil Workers was established in 2001 by the order of former President of Azerbaijan, Heydar Aliyev.
Due to the Day of Oil Workers, a renowned walk will be organized in the National Park of Azerbaijan, the exhibition of Azerbaijan State Oil Company's departments will be organized and information will be provided on the completed work and the plans for the Company. A concert will be held in the National Park. On 20 September the Head and employees of SOCAR will visit the Honorable Cemetery.
On 19 September, a new SOCAR Trust building and a new department of radiotherapy diagnostics in the Hospital of Oil Workers will be opened.
The Contract of the Century signed on 20 September 1994 began its active development of oil and gas resources in the Azerbaijani section of the Caspian Sea. The participants of the Contract are Azerbaijan International Operating Company (AIOC), Amoco, McDermott, Unocal, Pennzoil, Exxon, BP and Ramco, Statoil, LUKoil, TPAO and Delta Oil.
Later the list of participating companies changed after McDermott left, and Japanese Itochu joined AIOC, BP and Amoco combined. The US Mobil, which combined with Exxon, joined the consortium.
In addition, a new name emerged in AIOC: Devon Energy (former Pennzoil), and the British Ramco left the project in 2000 selling its share (2,0825%) to US-Saudi alliance Delta Hess for $150mln. Later Russian LUKOIL left the project selling its 10% share to the Japanese Inpex.
Currently the participants to the project are BP (34.1367% participation share), Unocal (10.2814%), SOCAR (10%), Inpex (10%), Statoil (8.5633%), ExxonMobil (8,006%), TPAO (6.75%), Devon Energy (5.6262%), Itochu (3.9205%), Delta Hess (2.7213%).
Over the recent ten years, the consortium has been headed by four presidents: Terry Adams, David Prichard, Jon Legat and David Woodward. Since the end of 2006, the AIOC has been headed by Bill Sheder.