Recently discovered oil reserves under the Caspian sea are gigantic and have put Azerbaijan in the global super league.

Two out of three of Azerbaijan's population lives below the UN poverty line

The hope is that oil will transform this country into the Kuwait of the Caucasus.

Contracts signed with the big foreign players are all structured to allow them to swallow the bulk of the early oil revenues to recoup their investments.

Two thirds of Azerbaijan's population lives below the UN poverty line and yet these people do not stand to benefit from their country's vast oil wealth for at least another ten years.

Desolated blocks house some of the one million people displaced when Armenia invaded then occupied 20% of Azerbaijan territory.

Three years after the truce one in seven is a refugee in their own land.

Army of orphans

At a state orphanage in Baku the ranks of Azerbaijan's army of orphans have been swollen by the troubles this country has been through.

At 17, orphans are forced to leave state care and are on their own.

Shamil Mamedov : "I've got to know lots of new people"

Shamil Mamedov a former street kid who at nine was brought here by police has reached this junction in life.

Last year Shamil got a job as a motorbike courier for an enterprising new venture that has emerged as a symbol of what is possible to build before the petrol dollars pour in.

The Youth Azeri parcel service (YAPS ) is a UNICEF project which fills a niche as the only such business in Baku. All its employees are orphans.

Before Shamil landed this job his prospects were bleak. Now he can earn more than three hundred dollars a month. He delivers documents the company delivers his dreams.

" I have become independent I look after myself I have become more serious. Now I mix with people from the companies I work with, I've got to know lots of new people" he says.

It may not have the brand name of DHL or TNT yet but six months after its inception the parcel service is turning a healthy profit.

The start up costs were underwritten by several big foreign oil firms.

They are wary of being seen to exploit more than oil here, as high profile corporate charity does wonders for public relations.

Blinkered belief

The promise of riches from the depths of the Caspian Sea has fostered an increasingly blinkered belief here that oil is the answer to everything, the panacea for all social ills.

Corruption and mismanagement could still scupper the chances of Azerbaijan one day realising its Kuwait of the Caucasus dream.