Independent Azerbaijan is a great gift from the national leader Heydar Aliyev to coming generations, and his rich legacy is our national treasure.
This year marks the 100th birthday anniversary of Heydar Aliyev – our National Leader, the founder of the new oil strategy, and the world-scale genius.
The times when the great leader headed our country are characterized as a period of revival and progress in all the spheres, including the oil industry. When the national leader Heydar Aliyev assumed leadership of the republic in 1969, the oil industry facing big challenges in those years started witnessing enhancement of its personnel and material-technical base, thus entering a new stage of dynamic development owing to the policy stipulating local HR trainings and national production development through introduction of new advanced technologies of that time. In 1970-1980 years, heavy cargo cranes, pipe layers, seismic survey vessels, passenger ships and other types of vessels, Khazar-type self-elevating floating drilling rigs, and Shelf-type semi-submersible floating drilling rigs were purchased and brought into Azerbaijan to conduct a proper assessment of underground natural resources of the country, including search and exploration of new oil-gas fields at the sea depth of 80-350m. As a result, discovered were 8 new oil-gas fields. Noteworthy among them are “Bahar”, “Bulla-Deniz”, “Gunashli”, “Chirag”, “Azeri” and “Kapaz” fields. At present, these fields account for the most of the oil-gas production running in the country.
Owing to the initiative, determination and influence of the All-national leader Heydar Aliyev, a decision was made to build in Baku a deepwater jackets factory which had been planned to be constructed in Astrakhan. To that end, the central soviet government allocated investments worth $450 million which at that time was regarded as a fairly rare occurrence. Founded in 1978, commissioned in 1984 and designed to build platforms making it possible to conduct oil-gas production at deep-water fields, the factory played an important role in the implementation of global projects within our country in the years of independence.
The initial period of our independence in the 90s of the last century went through rough times and the only way out of that situation our people saw in the All-national leader Heydar Aliyev’s heading the country. The great leader Heydar Aliyev who at the call and insistence of the people took over the leadership of the state, put an end to the chaos in the country within a short time. Having prepared a long-term development strategy, he unleashed a broad campaign to rebuild the devastated economy, address social problems, improve the well-being of the country’s citizens and ensure its political and military revival. As part of that activity, there were negotiations conducted with international oil companies about the development of Azeri-Chirag-Deepwater Gunashli field reserves, which resulted in the signing of the Contract of the Century that played a fundamental role in the recognition that independent Azerbaijan earned in the international arena, as well as in the growth of the country’s prestige, ensuring of its economic revival, improvement of the social well-being of our people and dynamic development of our country. As a follow-up to this project, Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline was built to deliver oil produced in the framework of the Contract of the Century to the world markets. Discovered in 1999 was one of the world’s biggest gas condensate fields “Shah Deniz” with reserves of more than 1 trillion cubic meters of gas. So, it earned country a reputation of a world-wide gas supplier. Launched was the design work of the South-Caucasus gas pipeline which subsequently began delivering Shah Deniz gas to the world markets.
Oilmen’s work was always highly appreciated by the All-national leader Heydar Aliyev. September 20 was declared Oilmen’s Day by our great leader’s decree dated 2001, and we celebrate this date as our professional holiday every year.
The political course and the country’s development strategy, of which foundation was laid by the national leader Heydar Aliyev, is being prosperously continued by his successor, the President of our country, Ilham Aliyev. The Southern Gas Corridor titled the project of the 21st century was implemented under the leadership of the head of the Azerbaijani state, who successfully continued implementing a new oil strategy worked out by our All-national leader. Today, TANAP and TAP, the major segments of the Southern Gas Corridor, are global projects ensuring diversified delivery of Azerbaijani gas via Türkiye, Greece and Albania to Italy and from there to other European countries. Of course, these and other projects implemented under the leadership of President Ilham Aliyev indicate great success that the Contract of the Century earned our country. Over time we will witness even greater success arisen from the Contract of the Century.
The right and successful policy carried out by the country’s President Ilham Aliyev ensured our economic development and raised the country’s prestige globally; important measures were undertaken to build the army and the victory was gained in the 44-day Patriotic war. As a result, our tricolor flag is proudly waving today on our lands freed from occupation.
Declaring 2023 the “Year of Heydar Aliyev” in the Azerbaijan Republic by the order of President Ilham Aliyev is of exceptional importance in promotion of Heydar Aliyev’s ideas.
Today SOCAR, which has become our national brand, successfully represents our country in the international arena. Being a part of SOCAR family and adhering to the great leader Heydar Aliyev’s political and strategic course continued by our President Ilham Aliyev, Azneft PU is doing its utmost to reach the highest technical and economic indicators.
The Union is playing an important role in the energy balance of the republic. Azneft PU accounts for 19.1% of oil condensate and 14.7% of gas produced in the country. It also meets 43.7% of the country’s gas demand and 99.6% of oil refineries’ needs. To us, it is a matter of great pride. Of course, there are also other technical and economic indicators describing this positive trend. In 2022, our income (5,543 million AZN) exceeded the target level by 20% (by 914 million AZN). This indicator is 11% higher than the income of 2021 (by more than 555 million AZN) and exceeds that of 2020 and 2019 by 65% (by over 2,186 million AZN) and 44% (by over 1,699 million AZN) respectively. Certainly, Azneft Production Union mobilizes all its strength to accomplish the assigned objectives both in 2023 and in the following years.
The steps Azneft PU takes to address challenges of the modern era, undertaken measures, applied software, analysis and evaluation deliver real results. The changes occurring in the world market in recent years and digitalization have accelerated introduction of new techniques and technologies, as well as process automation in the oil-gas industry. Artificial intelligence is already replacing human labor in many areas. Digitalization has the effect on the number of staff, operational functions, and shapes the mode of work performance. Development of technologies creates new working positions and terminates some old ones which became outdated. In this connection, introduction of new approaches and technologies, and quick automation of processes make it necessary for specialists to acquire new skills in accordance with changing conditions. Introduction of every new technique and technology causes the need in specialists capable of working with appropriate equipment.
Azneft PU also follows the principle of self-development and quick adaptation to changes both in production and non-production spheres in order to ensure appropriate growth of specialists’ qualification and efficiency of operations.
As in any other sphere, the primary objectives facing us today are to develop production lines of our activity, maintain stable production, continue improving social welfare of employees, preserve and improve an ecological balance, increase income and revenues, do cost-efficient spending and make sure the assigned tasks are fulfilled in a timely and efficient manner in compliance with safety regulations, adhering to the general political course. Undoubtedly, we together with our professional team will handle all these tasks and contribute to the growth of SOCAR’s welfare.
