President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev and his spouse Mehriban Aliyeva have attended the opening ceremony of the 18th International Caspian Oil & Gas Exhibition and Conference Incorporating Refining & Petrochemicals.

The Head of State made a speech at the event. In his remarks, Special Envoy of the United States Secretary of State for Eurasian Energy Richard Morningstar noted Baku was becoming more beautiful day by day.

He read out US President Barack Obama’s congratulatory letter to the Azerbaijani President. Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland David Cameron`s congratulations were delivered to the participants by the UK ambassador to Azerbaijan Caroline Brown.

Turkish ambassador to Azerbaijan Hulusi Kilic greeted the conference participants and read out Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s congratulatory message. In the ceremony, European Union commissioner for energy Günther Oettinger praised Azerbaijan’s role in energy sphere, stressing the importance of energy cooperation between EU and Azerbaijan.

European Commission President José Manuel Barroso’s message was also read out. Speaking at the ceremony, Crown Prince of the Kingdom of Norway Haakon praised the cooperation between State Oil Company of Azerbaijan and Statoil.

Alexander Khetaguri, Minister of Energy and Natural Resources of Georgia noted the importance of the exhibition. He stressed the significance of diversifying export routes for delivering Caspian oil to the European and world markets.

After the opening ceremony, President of Azerbaijan viewed the exhibition’s pavilions. Speaking to the opening of the 18th International Caspian Oil and Gas, Refining & Petrochemicals Exhibition and Conference, the President said the process of collecting and spending the funds was conducted in a very transparent manner.

“Azerbaijan’s State Oil Fund is one of the most transparent organizations on the global scale. The Fund`s activity was praised by international organizations, inducing the United Nations.”

The President noted: “Founding the Fund helped us to ensure the effective, transparent and fair distribution of oil revenues.”

“As a result we managed to decrease the poverty level in Azerbaijan from 49% to 9% in the last 7 years. And if it was not for the State Oil Fund we would not have managed to achieve this.”

“At the same time this has a very positive impact on Azerbaijan’s international image,” added President Aliyev.