A consortium of currently 10 petroleum companies that have signed extraction contracts with Azerbaijan. These companies include BP (UK), Chevron (USA), Devon Energy (USA), StatoilHydro (Norway), T?rkiye Petrolleri Anonim Ortakl??? (Turkey), Amerada Hess (USA), State Oil Company of Azerbaijan (Azerbaijan), ExxonMobil (USA), Inpex (Japan), Itochu (Japan). The AIOC made significant investment contributing to the construction of the South Caucasus Pipeline, the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan Pipeline and are currently discussing construction of a Trans-Caspian Oil Pipeline between Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan. Extraction of oil from the Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli fields and natural gas from Shah Deniz has been possible through foreign direct investment in this consortium.