About Azerbaijan

Azerbaijan has an economy that has completed its post-Soviet transition into a major oil-based economy (with the completion of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan Pipeline), from one in which the state played a major role. Azerbaijan’s GDP grew 41.7% in the first quarter of 2007, possibly the highest of any nation worldwide.
Azerbaijan has concluded 21 production-sharing agreements with various oil companies. An export pipeline that transports Caspian oil to the Mediterranean from Baku through Tbilisi, Georgia to Ceyhan, Turkey (the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan Pipeline) became operational in 2006. The pipeline is expected to generate as much as $160 billion in revenues for the country over the next 30 years. The recent high price of oil is highly beneficial to Azerbaijan’s economy as the nation is in the midst of an oil boom. Eastern Caspian producers in Kazakhstan also have expressed interest in accessing this pipeline to transport a portion of their production.
In 2010, Azerbaijan entered into the top eight biggest oil suppliers to EU countries with €9.46 billion. In 2011, the number of foreign investments in Azerbaijan was $20 billion, a 61% increase from 2010. According to the Minister of Economic Development of Azerbaijan, Shahin Mustafayev, in 2011, “$15.7 billion was invested in the non-oil sector, while the rest – in the oil sector.”