BAKU, Azerbaijan, Dec. 12
By Anastasia Savchenko - Trend:
The economic significance of the “Contract of the Century” is that oil production rose from the lowest level in Azerbaijan’s history - from 9 million tons in 1997 - to 51 million tons in 2010, First Vice President of Azerbaijan’s state oil company SOCAR, Academician Khoshbakht Yusifzade said in an interview with national Xalq newspaper, Trend reports.
Yusifzade added that the political importance of the agreement is that the leading states and companies of the world have become once again convinced that Azerbaijan is a stable, independent state and a reliable partner with which it is possible to work and invest in this country.
“It is no coincidence that after the signing of this agreement with foreign companies, 35 more agreements were concluded,” the first vice president emphasized.
Yusifzade noted that Azerbaijani oil has been exported to Europe and to world markets since 1997 via the main export directions - the Baku-Novorossiysk Oil Pipeline (also known as the Northern Route Export Pipeline and Northern Early Oil Pipeline), the Western Route Export Pipeline (WREP) since 1999) and the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline since May 2006.
“As of Dec. 1, 2019, Azerbaijan sold 291 million tons of profit oil on world markets, which exceeds 58.5 percent of oil produced,” the first vice president added.
The “Contract of the Century” is a large-scale international agreement on the joint development of three oil fields - Azeri, Chirag and deepwater Gunashli in the Azerbaijani sector of the Caspian Sea, signed Sept. 20, 1994 in Baku among 13 big companies specializing in oil production and representing eight countries.
The contract, due to its high importance, received the name “Contract of the Century.”