After the discovery of oil fields, Baku became a special place, where various economic and political interests of international coalitions, industrial clans and leaders were concentrated and clashed. VK begins publishing chapters from the book by Ismail Agakishiyev "History of the Baku Oil Industry and the Second Oil Boom (second half of the 19th century - beginning of the 20thcentury)" The book presents a historical analysis of the emergence and current state of the Azerbaijani oil industry.
The project on the development of the Kyapaz deposit was initiated by Rosneft, headed by its former president Alexander Putilov. However, shortly after that the initiative passed to LUKOIL and it was this company that mostly worked on preparing the agreement. It is important to consider close relations between LUKOIL and SOCAR and four years of experience of LUKOIL in the Azerbaijani sector of the Caspian Sea. Therefore, the primacy of LUKOIL on this contract was natural. On July 4th 1997 the document was signed on behalf of Rosneft in Moscow by representatives of the board of the company, who did not have the authority to do so. 4 This was the origin of disputes between the two companies and the reason for the claims of the new president of Rosneft, Yury Bespalov.
With LUKOIL having a 30% share, Bespalov considered the 20 percent share of Rosneft in the agreement insufficient, because, in his opinion, it did not correspond to the acceptable level of profitability. In addition, being 100% owned by the state, Rosneft completely depended on the country's leadership, which had made a decision acceptable to Niyazov. Russia unilaterally abrogated the agreement previously concluded with Azerbaijan, which did not contradict the basic terms of the contract. The best option, according to Rosneft, was the establishment of a consortium of the Caspian states. Rosneft left the Russian-Azerbaijani project on the Kyapaz oil field, but it did not mean that the company was going to refrain from participating in other Caspian oil projects. It established a working group to discuss ways of cooperation with Baku and Ashgabat. In fact, Rosneft almost took the resolution of the conflict upon itself - a contract in which. Russia became involved after concluding the agreement on the development of the Kyapaz field signed by Rosneft and LUKOIL on the one hand, and by the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan on the other hand.
According to the contract, LUKOIL suspended all operations until the resolution of the dispute between Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan. The company informed the Foreign Ministry of Russia that it would not take any further action on this project, which was documented in a note sent via diplomatic channels to Azerbaijan. Thus, LUKOIL adopted a waiting attitude in relation to the project by putting forward its attitude towards the project in relation to Azerbaijani-Turkmen contracts. However, both LUKOIL and Rosneft regarded the claims of Turkmenistan on this deposit as not at all certain. The position of the leadership of Azerbaijan on the Kyapaz field was the following: "No one, including Turkmenistan, can carry out any work on this field without us."
In response to the announcement by the government of Turkmenistan of a tender for the development of oil and gas resources in 11 prospective oil and gas deposits in the Turkmen sector of the Caspian Sea, including the Serdar (Kyapaz) field, SOCAR issued a statement on the ineligibility of its actions. In relation to that Aliyev said: "It has been triggered by a variety of forces with unfriendly attitudes towards Azerbaijan, it has been done to sully the success achieved by Azerbaijan or to prevent them. Apparently, my visit to the United States, successful negotiations and conclusion of new contracts have caused such actions."
In opinion-based journalism, the views of certain individuals are unfortunately often presented as the position of the leadership. In this process it is often overlooked that the country's leadership is a group of people with different views. Thus, there existed different opinions among officials of countries of the Caspian region, as well as among Turkmen leaders about events in the Azerbaijani sector of the Caspian Sea. Confrontation of opinions was also present in attitudes towards the "Contract of the Century." A politician must have the ability to find an agreement and not to sow discord. When in 1994 certain representatives of the Russian state issued a statement of non-recognition of the "Contract of the Century", many statesmen were confused. H. Aliev noted: "Even the British Foreign Minister, Mr. Hurd, meeting me two months after the signing of the contract, asked me anxiously: 'What shall we do?'
The president had to calm him down. The termination of the contract on the Kyapaz field had not become an obstacle to cooperation between SOCAR and LUKOIL. Executives of both companies were calmly looking for a decent way out. However, statements made by the Foreign Ministry and the president of Turkmenistan led to an increase in tension in the Caspian region. The Mobil company won the tender on the development of the Serdar (Kyapaz) field in June 1998. The leadership of Azerbaijan took a stance against it.
Azerbaijan made it clear to the Mobil company that if it participated in the development of the Kyapaz field, then the project of this company in Azerbaijan would be under threat. Mobil correctly assessed the situation and announced that it was not going to conduct any work on the Kyapaz field until all problems related to disputes were resolved.
