Caspian Oil & Gas Conference is one of the most significant international oil and gas events where the very topical issues of bi-lateral and multi-lateral energy relations and global energy security are discussed. This conference is appraised as a peculiar institute for the oil and gas industry by the leading specialists of this sphere.

It will take place between 30 – 31 May, 2019 at the Baku Expo Centre in Baku, Azerbaijan.

The event has become the traditional meeting place for the specialists of the oil and gas industry worldwide, serving as a striking example of industry achievements and of the amount of interest taken in projects implemented in the Caspian region.

Participation in the conference enables the evaluation of both new trends in the oil and gas market and potential opportunities in the region, including issues of co-operation, the prospects for the solution of global energy security issues and large investment projects.

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July 2018 : Caspian oil and gas: High hopes for a tough neighborhood

Azerbaijan has long been seen as a strategic gateway to vast oil and gas resources in the Caspian region and a source of energy security for Europe but has yet to live up to its promise as a bulwark against the influence of Russia and OPEC in the region.

Oil companies and politicians coined the term “contract of the century” to describe the 1994 deal to develop the giant oil complex Azeri-Chirag-Offshore Gunashli, which led to the construction of the BTC pipeline to the Mediterranean.

Azeri crude, produced by a BP-led consortium, has lately offset Libyan shortfalls. But the BTC pipeline operates at just two-thirds of capacity as expected volumes from across the Caspian have failed to materialize.

And this month’s launch of gas supplies from Azerbaijan’s Shah Deniz field to Europe via the audacious-sounding Southern Corridor may fall short of expectations.



The route offers an alternative for at least one country that relies on Russia for gas: Bulgaria. But opinion varies on whether southern Europe needs extra gas; and the volume involved, at 10 Bcm/year, is barely 2% of current EU gas demand.

That may disappoint those like former US diplomat Matthew Bryza who see the Southern Corridor as a tool for pressuring the EU’s largest supplier. Providing competition for Russia’s Gazprom is “to me the greatest goal of all of energy security in this part of the world,” Bryza, who served on the National Security Council and as US ambassador to Baku, said recently in Baku.

He explained Azerbaijan’s significance as “a successful example of a Muslim-majority country, a tolerant society, a secular society, succeeding at a very difficult piece of real estate: the only country that borders both Russia and Iran.”

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September 2017 : The Azerbaijan Government and co-venturers sign amended and restated Azeri-Chirag-Deepwater Gunashli PSA

The Azerbaijan Government and the State Oil Company of the Republic of Azerbaijan (SOCAR), together with BP, Chevron, INPEX, Statoil, ExxonMobil, TP, ITOCHU and ONGC Videsh have signed the amended and restated agreement on the joint development and production sharing (PSA) for the Azeri, Chirag fields and the Deep Water Portion of the Gunashli Field (ACG) in the Azerbaijan Sector of the Caspian Sea. The contract is now subject to ratification by the Parliament (Milli Majlis) of the Republic of Azerbaijan.

The contract was signed in Baku in the presence of H.E. President Ilham Aliyev of the Republic of Azerbaijan and a group of visiting senior government and state officials, by Rovnag Abdullayev, President of SOCAR, on behalf of the Azerbaijan Government, and by the representatives of the co-venturer companies.

BP will remain the operator in accordance with the amended and restated ACG PSA.

As part of the contract, the international co-venturers will pay a bonus of $3.6bn to the State Oil Fund of the Republic of Azerbaijan, and SOCAR will increase its equity share in the ACG PSA from 11.65 per cent to 25 per cent. During the next 32 years, there is the potential for more than $40bn capital to be invested in the ACG oil field.

Following completion of the contract, the new ACG participating interests will be as follows: BP, 30.37 per cent; AzACG (SOCAR), 25.00 per cent; Chevron, 9.57 per cent; INPEX, 9.31 per cent; Statoil, 7.27 per cent; ExxonMobil, 6.79 per cent; TP, 5.73 per cent; ITOCHU, 3.65 per cent; and ONGC Videsh Limited (OVL), 2.31 per cent.

Subsequent to this contract, SOCAR and its co-venturers have also agreed to progress engineering development work to evaluate an additional production platform in the ACG contract area.

Rovnag Abdullayev, SOCAR President, said: “Today is a significant day for Azerbaijan. It brings back the days, when we signed “The Contract of the Century”. Despite the challenging political and economic conditions of that time, thanks to the intense effort by our national leader Heydar Aliyev the first ACG contract was signed, laying the foundation of the future economic development of Azerbaijan. Since the signing of the first PSA in 1994, ACG has benefited from $33bn of investment, producing around 440 million tonnes of oil, and delivering directly more than $125bn of net profit to our country.

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