A regular roundtable took place in the assembly hall of the House of Creative People in Shaki, a regional town some 370 km northwest away from Baku, in the framework of the united project of the coalition Increasing Transparency in Extractive Industries (ITEI) and a campaign known as Public Awareness and the Growth of the Interest of the Citizens in the Prudent Use of Oil Incomes.

Participating in the meeting on Oil Contracts and BTC Pipeline were some 30 public activists from local NGOs (Uluchay, Ganclar tashkilaty (youth organization), etc.) as well as representatives from regional offices of international NGOs (TASIS, CHF, etc.), people from the regional office of the Confederation of Entrepreneurs, business interests, officers from the regional representation of the Ministry of Economic Development, members of the association of craftsmen, staff members of Local History Museum and the Museum of Applied Art, officers from the regional archive, teachers, medical officers, and Mr Asgar Ahmad, the joint co-ordinator for the subproject and the head of the Fund for the Protection of Democratic Values, Mr Qubad Ibadoglu, in capacity of the speaker, the co-ordinator for the ITEI Coalition Board and the chairman of the board of the Centre for Economic Research, and Ms Ruhangiz Huseynova, a member of the Monitoring Group of the ITEI Coalition and the chairman of the Solidarity among Women public union.

Opening the event, Mr Asgar Ahmad let the participants briefly introduce themselves and gave an insight into the topic, the significance of the meeting, the need for the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI), the fundamental principles and philosophy of EITI, history of establishment and operation of the ITEI Coalition, its aims and targets. Then he passed the floor over to Mr Qubad Ibadoglu. In his presentation Mr Ibadoglu exposed economic and political reasons behind the oil contracts that had been signed with Azerbaijan, and provided information about the existing types of oil contracts and the corresponding kind of the agreement which had been preferred by Azerbaijan. Mr Ibadoglu also informed the audience of the subject and terms of oil agreements, the duties and responsibilities of the parties to the agreements, taxation regime, tax obligations of the relevant contractors and subcontractors, bonuses and the mechanisms for bonus payment, rules of arbitration, etc. Then he touched upon the issues related to the income which was made on the implementation of oil agreements, the formula of income distribution among the parties to the agreement, model(s) for the accumulation of incomes from the corresponding projects, and the methods of compensating the expenditures.

The second part of Mr Ibadoglu’s presentation was devoted to BTC pipeline, particularly, the obstacles to realizing that project, its economic, political and strategic importance for the region. He also gave the participants an in-depth insight into project expenditures and the specifications of the pipeline (throughput capacity, etc.).

At the end the presentation was focused on the comparative experience of the three countries – Indonesia, Nigeria and Norway – in the field of the management of petrodollars and socioeconomic implications of the corresponding ways of running and using oil incomes.

The presentation raised heated and interesting discussions; during the Q&A session participants were provided with answers to the questions they had put to the speaker(s).

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Last correction date of the file: 24/7/2008 - 14:58:51

Other language version of the file: /az/