Norway’s Equinor company looks forward to continuing its contribution to the development of the oil and gas industry in Azerbaijan, Equinor’s country manager for Azerbaijan Fawad Quraishi told Trend on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of signing the Contract of the Century.

"Equinor is proud to be part of this journey from the very beginning. Our collective achievement since 1994 is extraordinary and we, together with SOCAR and other partners in ACG, have shown solid commitment to Azerbaijan,” he said.

Quraishi noted that the extension of the ACG PSA in 2017 for another 25 years and the sanctioning of the Azeri Central East (ACE) project in 2019 offer an indication of Azerbaijan’s trust and confirm ACG’s value to Equinor and partners.

"Last year we entered a new phase of co-operation, following the 25 years of successful partnership between SOCAR and Equinor. We now look forward to progressing our partnership and to continuing our contribution to the development of the oil and gas industry in Azerbaijan through our 50/50 joint projects with SOCAR,” added the country manager.

Azerti-Chirag-Gunashli (ACG) is celebrating its 25th anniversary in 2019.

25 years ago, on September 20, 1994, the Government of Azerbaijan and a group of international oil companies representing eight countries signed the Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli Production Sharing Agreement, which later became known as the "Contract of the Century”. The Contract was extended in September 2017 until mid-century.

From the start of production in November 1997 till the end of 2Q 2019, ACG produced about 488 million tonnes (more than 3.6 billion barrels) of oil.

ACG participating interests are: BP (30.37 percent), SOCAR (25 percent), Chevron (9.57 percent), INPEX (9.31 percent), Equinor (7.27 percent), ExxonMobil (6.79 percent), TPAO (5.73 percent), ITOCHU (3.65 percent), ONGC Videsh Limited (OVL) (2.31 percent).