President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev received at President Palace the delegation headed by the state secretary, deputy minister of oil and energy Olaff Ulseth, 20 September.

Greeting the guests, President of the Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev expressed pleasure with their visit to take part at the 10th anniversary festivities of the Contract of the Century to be held in Baku.

Head of the Azerbaijani State gave high assessment to the activity of the companies and their representatives who took part at the signing ceremony of the Contract of the Century ten years ago when Baku faced historical tests.

Noting that during the years passed since 1994, Azerbaijan has achieved great accomplishments, including in the field of oil industry, President of Azerbaijan said that we aim the oil profits to direct to development of welfare of the people. The obtained profits after the operation of the export oil and gas pipelines, will much more better living conditions of our people, he underlined. Speaking on transparency of spending of the oil revenues, the head of state said that this policy would be further successfully continued.

Touching upon the high level relations between Azerbaijan and Norway, the President also recalled on successful activity of the Statoil Company of Norway in the Country.

Head of Azerbaijan State noted that the key goal of Azerbaijan is to reach high development and in the non-oil sector. And Norway’s experience in this field is interesting for Azerbaijan. We should successfully benefit of the data exchange and mutually beneficial cooperation, he stressed.

President of Azerbaijan expressed confidence for further cooperation between the countries.

Expressing gratitude for warm reception, head of the delegation Mr. Olaff Ulseth said that Azerbaijan has reached success not only in the oil sphere, but also in all fields. We were eyewitnesses of these accomplishments during our visit to Azerbaijan.

Speaking of intensive development of the links between Azerbaijan and Norway in the energy field, the visitor said that Statoil is very active from this standpoint. He expressed confidence these links would go ahead in the coming years.

President Ilham Aliyev asked the guest to convey his greetings and high considerations to the Prime Minister of Norway Magne Bondevik.

Ambassador of Norway to Azerbaijan Steiner Gill participated at the reception