Azerbaijan marks Oil Workers’ Day

Azerbaijan is marking the Oil Workers’ Day. President of the State Oil Company of the Azerbaijani Republic (SOCAR) Rovnag Abdullayev congratulated the workers.

Abdullayev said that the company is well-known around the world and is developing. Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev gave a high rating to the company’s work.

A contract on development of Azeri, Chirag, Gunsehli fields was signed in Gulistan Palace in Baku on September 20, 1994. It came into force on December 12, 1994. Initial oil reserves were 511 million tons, then 730 million. $11.5 billion were invested, 80% of income goes to Azerbaijan, 20% to investors.

The contract consists of 400 pages and translated into 4 languages. 13 companies took part from 8 states. The Azerbaijani International Operation Company was formed for SOCAR. 26 more deals with 41 oil companies from 18 states were signed. USA invested $57.6 billion out of $64 billion.

Chyrag-1 oil platform was restored in 1995, it was modernized for drilling A-18 (5500 m inclination), A-19 (6300) and other. Oil extraction started in 1997. The Baku-Novorossiysk pipeline 231 km long with a diameter of 720 mm was built. 11 million and 34,000 tons of oil were pumped since October 25, 1997, to late 2007.

Baku-Supsa pipeline with a length of 837 km and diameter of 530 km was built on April 17, 1999. First income was in December 1999. 45.542 million tons of oil were transported by late 2007. 9 tons of oil were extracted in 1997 and over 40 million in 2007.

Dede Gorgud drilling platform (former Kaspmorneft) was restored for exploratory drilling at a depth of 50-475 meters with a borehole depth of 7620 meters was launched. Another platform Istiglal (former Shelf-5) was restored for drilling at a depth of 50-700 meters with a borehole depth of 7620 meters. The Azeri0Chirag-Guneshli had 6 exploratory boreholes drilled, allowing extraction of 50% of reserves. The Caspian Drilling Company continues operation at Shah Deniz and Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli. Success was achieved with the Azerbaijani machine Lider, named after Heydar Aliyev, built by foreign companies.

Istanbul hosted an OSCE summit for presidents of the USA, Turkey, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan where a deal on construction of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline was signed. Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, his counterparts from Turkey and Georgia started construction of the pipeline on September 18, 2002.

The Azerbaijani and Georgian sections of the export pipeline were connected in October 2004. The Ceyhan section was opened on July 13, 2006. 36.796 million tons of oil were transported through the pipeline by late 2007.