Azerbaijan marks 20th anniversary of Contract of the Century

The 20th anniversary of the Contract of the Century and the Southern Gas Corridor groundbreaking ceremony started in Baku on September 20, Azerbaijani news agency Trend reports on Saturday.

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, as well as heads of several countries and governments, officials, foreign diplomats accredited in the country and foreign guests attended the ceremony.

The Azeri, Chirag and deep-water Gunashli (ACG)-International Contract No. 1 was signed by President Heydar Aliyev and the participating international companies on September 20, 1994, ratified in Parliament on December 2, and came into effect on December 12. Because of its potential reserves estimated at 6 billion barrels (950,000,000 m3) of oil, this project is often referred to as the "Contract of the Century". The projected investment for this project is $13 billion.

A few months later in 1995, a consortium was organized known as the Azerbaijan International Operating Company (AIOC). Originally AIOC was composed of eleven major international companies: BP (UK), Amoco (U.S.), LUKoil (Russia), Pennzoil, (now Devon of U.S.), UNOCAL (U.S.), Statoil (Norway), McDermott (U.S.), Ramco (Scotland), TPAO (Turkey), Delta Nimir (now Amerada Hess of U.S.) and SOCAR (Azerbaijan).