OREANDA-NEWS. Prime Minister of Azerbaijan Arthur Rasizade, Minister of Energy Natig Aliyev, SOCAR President Rovnag Abdullayev, SOCAR Vice President Elshad Nassirov and other officials visited Tbilisi on May 16 to attend the events dedicated to the 20th anniversary of the East-West energy corridor. Azerbaijani delegation held bilateral meetings with President of Georgia Giorgi Margvelashvili and Prime Minister Giorgi Kvirikashvili to discuss the prospects of development of the Azerbaijani-Georgian relations, operation of the East-West energy corridor and the regional energy projects as well. Afterwards Azerbaijani and Georgian officials, representatives of the diplomatic corps and BP attended the solemn ceremony dedicated to the 20th anniversary of the East-West corridor.

In his opening speech, Deputy Prime Minister of Georgia, Minister of Energy Kakha Kaladze spoke about the large-scale energy projects carried out in the region emphasizing the importance of the East-West energy corridor. Prime Minister of Georgia Giorgi Kvirikashvili said twenty years ago President Heydar Aliyev and President Eduard Shevardnadze founded the Baku-Supsa Pipeline project which became the guarantee of peace and security in South Caucasus and gave impetus to the development of useful cooperation between Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey. Prime Minister of Azerbaijan Arthur Rasizade underlined the importance of diversified oil and gas pipeline system built within the framework of the “Contract of Century”, the result of far-sighted energy strategy elaborated by National Leader of Azerbaijan Heydar Aliyev. He said the Baku-Supsa Pipeline was one of the alternative routes arising from this strategy.

Then Minister of Energy of Azerbaijan Natig Aliyev, BP Regional Vice President Peter Mather addressed the ceremony speaking about the importance of Baku-Supsa Pipeline and other regional energy projects.

The Baku-Supsa Pipeline with length of 833 kilometers and maximum discharge of 7 million tonnes per year and 140 thousand barrels per day delivers Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli oil to the west of Georgia, the Supsa terminal with total capacity of 120 thousand tonnes.