Baku has opened the 18th International Exhibition and Conference
“Caspian Oil and Gas”. The conference sees leading specialists of the
world’s oil industry discuss the latest achievements in the sector.
Azerbaijan has received $97 billion in investment since 1995, $42
billion of which was invested in oil. Most investments were foreign,
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, Trend reports.
Azerbaijan has 2.2 trillion cubic meters of gas reserves, $35 billion
of currency reserves and GDP has tripled in the last 7 years.
Aliyev said that the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline opened a new
corridor for Caspian oil to the Mediterranean.
US President Barack Obama greeted participants of the meeting in his
letter. He praised Azerbaijani National Leader Heydar Aliyev. The US
Special Envoy for Eurasian Energy, Richard Morningstar, read out the
letter.
The Southern Corridor is a priority project for the European Union. It
will diversify energy supplies and improve energy security. The
Southern Corridor includes such projects as Nabucco, the
Trans-Adriatic Pipeline (TAP), the White Stream and ITGI
(Turkey-Greece-Italy pipeline).
President Ilham Aliyev traditionally attends the exhibition. The
Azerbaijani Ministry of Industry and Energy and SOCAR support it. The
Global Association of the Exhibition Industry (UFI) supports the
exhibition and presented the Brand Award Azerbaijan 2010.
The exhibition is also characterised by its guests. Letters were sent
from the leaders of the EU, UK, the USA and Norway. Norwegian Prince
Haakon, EU Commissar for Energy Gunther Oettinger, US Special Envoy
for Eurasian Energy Richard Morningstar, Georgian Energy Minister
Alexander Khetaguri, Norwegian Minister for Oil and Energy Ola Borten
Moe and others arrived for the event.
The exhibition is hosting 285 companies from 27 states this year,
including companies of UK, Russia, Turkey and Germany. 40% of the
exhibition was taken by world oil companies and corporations. They
include BP, OMV Gas International GmbH, SOCAR, Statoil, Total, TPAO.
38% of participants are local companies. The exhibition this year
increased in size by 25%. 12% of the companies are attending for the
first time.
90 media sources from 11 states are providing information support.
A conference will be held at the Hyatt Regency Hotel on June 8. Over
500 delegates will attend. They will discuss the role of Azerbaijan in
European energy security, investments, oil exploration and extraction.
Special attention will be paid to ecology.
The exhibition and conference have over 20 sponsor-companies:
including SOCAR, Baku White City, BP Azerbaijan, Caspian Geophysical,
Caspian Pipe Coatings, Conoco Phillips, Cross Caspian Oil and Gas
Logistics, DEPA, Edison, Fluenta, GDF SUEZ, Inpex Corporation,
Mcdermott Caspian Contractors Inc, Nobel Oil, OMV Gas & Power Gmbh,
RWE, Statoil, Salans, TAP, Total E & P Azerbaijan.
Azerfon-Vodafone, AZAL, Greenwich Travel Club, Caspel and the Caucasus
Point Hotel are partners of the exhibition.
It was organized by ITE Group PLC (UK) and its partner Iteca Caspian.
Other participants are Iteca Caspian LLC (Azerbaijan), ITE LLC Moscow
(Russia), EUF (Turkey), GIMA (Germany), ITE China (China) and ITE Gulf
(UAE).
