Thirty-two years have passed since the signing of the “Contract of the Century.”

Axar.az reports that September 20 is marked in Azerbaijan as the anniversary of the Production Sharing Agreement for the development of the Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli (ACG) field block in Azerbaijan’s sector of the Caspian Sea, known as the “Contract of the Century,” as well as Oil Workers’ Day, the professional holiday of employees in the oil and gas sector.

The observance of the day as a professional holiday was formalized by a decree signed by national leader Heydar Aliyev on August 16, 2001.

On Oil Workers’ Day, achievements in the industry and key challenges ahead are discussed, while workers and specialists who have demonstrated outstanding service and dedication are awarded honorary titles, orders and medals by presidential decrees and orders.

The day is celebrated as a professional holiday for oil industry workers because on September 20, 1994, an agreement was signed in Baku between the State Oil Company of the Republic of Azerbaijan (SOCAR) and 11 foreign oil companies from six countries on the joint development of the ACG fields and the sharing of produced oil.

Initially signed for a period of 30 years, the ACG agreement was approved by the Azerbaijani parliament on December 12, 1994, and entered into force on December 14, 1994. The agreement represented the first major investment by Western multinational companies in any country of the former Soviet Union and became known as the “Contract of the Century.”