In 2010, Azerbaijan’s oil production reached 51 million tons, increasing from only 9.5 million tons in 1994 when the country signed an agreement, later dubbed as "The Contract of the Century”, with the world’s oil giants to develop oil fields on the Azerbaijan shelf of the Caspian Sea.
Last year, Azerbaijan produced 38.8 million tons of oil.
On September 14, 2017, the Azerbaijan government and co-venturers signed the amended and restated agreement on the joint development and production sharing for the Azeri, Chirag fields and the Deep Water Portion of the Gunashli Field in the Azerbaijan sector of the Caspian Sea. 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% to 25%. During the next 32 years, there is the potential for more than $40bn capital to be invested in the ACG oil field.
Azerbaijan`s oil industry dates back to 1847 when for the first time in the world the country introduced an industrial method of oil extraction. The one billionth and the two billionth ton of the Azerbaijani oil were extracted in 1971 and 2017 respectively.
