In the current era of increasing geopolitical tensions, the importance of diversification in ensuring energy security has increased. Diversification is one of the main factors of energy security

In order to turn independent Azerbaijan into a modern, strong, sustainable economic development state, the national leader Heydar Aliyev defined the oil strategy, which will be the basis of the fundamental transformation of the future political and economic reforms. This strategy ensured the involvement of foreign investors in the development of Azerbaijan's oil fields, the diversification of crude oil transportation routes, the effective management of oil revenues, and Azerbaijan's entry into a new stage of development.
Under the leadership of national leader Heydar Aliyev, on September 20, 1994, one of the most important agreements in the history of Azerbaijan in the 20th century due to its political, economic and strategic importance was the signing of the Azeri, Chirag and Guneshli oil fields located in the Azerbaijani sector of the Caspian Sea. Agreement on the joint development of a part of the country and the distribution of production - "Contract of the Century" was signed. The energy projects supported by Azerbaijan act as factors that increase the importance of our country for the region and the European Union.
In the current era of increasing geopolitical tensions, the importance of diversification in ensuring energy security has increased. "Diversification is one of the main factors of energy security. We have worked on diversification since the first day of the implementation of our energy strategy. As a result, we have diversified export routes - we have 3 oil pipelines and 4 gas pipelines running in different directions.
In the short history of independence, new oil pipelines were built in parallel with the implementation of the development of fields in the Azerbaijani sector of the Caspian Sea in order to fulfill the provisions of the agreements signed with transnational companies within the stipulated time and to transport the increased production to international markets. At the end of 1997, the oil was exported to the Black Sea through the substantially restored Baku-Novorossiysk pipeline. In 1999, an oil pipeline was built from Baku to another Black Sea port - Supsay. In December 1999, the first tanker filled with Azerbaijani oil was put on the world market. In 2002, as a result of the continuous efforts of the national leader Heydar Aliyev, the foundation of the main export oil pipeline - Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan, which was stipulated in the "Contract of the Century", but considered by many to be a legend or a pipeline on paper, was laid. On May 25, 2005, the opening ceremony of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline was held with the participation of the President of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev. In 2006, the transportation of Azerbaijani oil from the Turkish port of Ceyhan began.
The energy policy of our republic is not based only on oil production and export. Azerbaijan also presents itself to the world as a gas country. Our republic started exporting "blue fuel" to foreign partners in 2007 with the commissioning of the Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum gas pipeline (South Caucasian gas pipeline). Through this pipeline, the gas produced within the framework of the first stage of the "Shahdeniz" field was exported to Georgia, Turkey and Greece.
The Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum pipeline does not have the necessary physical capabilities to deliver all the volumes of deposits discovered in the Azerbaijani sector of the Caspian Sea to consumers located far from the borders of our country. Therefore, Azerbaijan took the initiative to create a new transportation route - the Southern Gas Corridor and assumed the main burden for the realization of this idea. It should be recalled that at the beginning there were a number of problems related to the construction of the Southern Gas Corridor. Thanks to the determination of the President of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev, he managed to destroy all skeptical approaches and remove the obstacles to the construction of a new pipeline from the Caspian coast to Europe. The mentioned project is considered one of the largest infrastructure projects of the 21st century. The Southern Gas Corridor, which is 3,500 kilometers long, reaches Italy from Baku through the bottom of the Adriatic Sea, passing through the highlands. The construction of the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline (TAP), the last segment of the new transport route, was completed in December 2021. Since then, Azerbaijan has transported more than 11 billion cubic meters of "blue gas" to Europe.
Export of gas abroad also increased and reached 7.6 billion cubic meters. Currently, against the background of known geopolitical tensions, Europe's demand for "blue fuel" has increased. Azerbaijan is a country that has the ability to transport more volumes of gas to the "old continent" by putting new fields into operation.