Baku. 10 July. REPORT.AZ / The Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline and the Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum gas pipeline reconstructed the energy map of the world.
Report informs, President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev at the 22nd World Petroleum Congress in Istanbul.
"Azerbaijan is an ancient oil region. In fact, we believe that Azerbaijan is the birthplace of oil. Since the first oil was extracted in an industrial way in Azerbaijan, Baku in 1846. A century later, in the middle of the 20th century, for the first time in the world, oil was produced by the sea in the Azerbaijani sector of the Caspian Sea by our oil workers. During the period of independence, the Azerbaijani people became the masters of their destiny and natural resources, these resources served the development of the country, improving welfare of the people. In first years of independence, Azerbaijan has opened the Caspian Sea for foreign investors, since 1994, major investments have been made in oil industry. This year is also significant because the Contract of the Century was signed, which played a key role in Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline", the head of state said.
"After that, rich Shahdeniz gas field was discovered, which is one of the world's largest reserves in terms of reserves, which is the basis of the resources of the Southern Gas Corridor.Thus, in modern era, Azerbaijan has become a country which produces and exports oil and gas. To access to the world market, our country was supposed to build oil and gas pipelines, since we do not have a direct exit. For this purpose, Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline and Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum gas pipeline were built. We took part in the opening of the Baku-Ceyhan pipeline with President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, from that time we considered future plans, held discussions and all our joint plans turned into a reality", Aliyev added.