Oil Workers Day and 14th Anniversary of signing the Contract of Century to develop large-scale fields Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli was marked in Azerbaijan on 20 September. In 1994 Azerbaijan first invited to Caspian region the foreign companies and investors (already nearly $25bln investment was put in oil and gas projects in the country), which became the beginning of the oil and gas strategy of the country. The Contract of Century which was signed on 20 September 1994 began its active development of oil and gas resources in the Azerbaijani section of the Caspian Sea. Oil Workers Day was established in 2001 by the order of former President of Azerbaijan, Heydar Aliyev. Furthermore, this year the 160th anniversary of beginning of industrial production in Azerbaijan is marked.
Being signed in 1994 the Contract of Century not only started the far-sighted and effective energy strategy of Azerbaijan, but also the entire economic prosperity of the country. This served the advancement of Azerbaijan as the regional leader, who realizes oil and gas, transport and other projects. Today the total number of contracts for the search, exploration, development and rehabilitation of oil and gas prospective structures and fields in Azerbaijan, concluded with the foreign companies, exceeds 25. Realization of these agreements allowed the country to reach the volumes of oil and gas production not achieved in Azerbaijan since the beginning of the industrial development of hydrocarbons - 160 years ago. Already nearly $25bln investment was put in oil and gas projects in the country
The participants of the Contract are BP (operator), Chevron, SOCAR, Inpex, Statoil, ExxonMobil, TPAO, Devon Energy, Itochu and Delta Hess.
Signing the Contract of Century played the role of the locomotive of development not only of the oil sector, but also other sectors of Azerbaijanzs economy. Within the taken measures, great possibilities were opened for introducing advanced technologies, developing transport sector and service sector, increase the staff potential, create new jobs.The Contract imposed basis for the realization of such large-scale projects as the construction of Baku- Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline and Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum gas pipeline. Oil and gas contracts created conditions for the realization of social projects and for economic development as a whole. State Oil Fund of Azerbaijan was established for an effective control of the foreign currency reserves, which come from sale of the hydrocarbons within the signed contracts.
Time proved that signing this global contract was not occasional and was extremely necessary for Azerbaijan. This contract served the development of not only Azerbaijan, but also entire region as a whole. The Contract of Century is the success, of which benefits will affect not one generation of the Azerbaijanis.