Azerbaijan State Oil Company (SOCAR) caught in the middle of Israel-Gaza war Global Voices

Activists vandalized SOCAR headquarters in Istanbul in protest

On May 31, a group of activists named “Thousand Youth for Palestine” gathered in front of the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan (SOCAR) building in Istanbul to protest the regular supply of oil to the country to Israel via the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline. a gas pipeline that carries Azerbaijani oil through Georgia to Turkey’s Mediterranean ports, from where it is shipped around the world, including Israel. Turkey continues to maintain the flow despite calls to suspend Azerbaijani oil exports to Israel (Turkey restricted the sale of some goods to Israel in April and announced its decision to end all trade relations with Israel in May 2024).

According to local media, some 13 members of the group were arrested after staging a protest, throwing red paint on the walls of the building’s entrance and breaking the front door. Although initially silent on the incident, SOCAR eventually responded, denying the direct sale of oil to Israel and claiming that the sale took place through trading companies. SOCAR insisted that these trading companies are not monitored or controlled by supplier companies like SOCAR.

Azerbaijan’s state news agency APA even claimed that “the demonstration was the result of Iranian sabotage aimed at tarnishing the image of Azerbaijan in Turkey.” Separately, SOCAR’s Turkish media platform Haber Global claimed that the recent targeting of the SOCAR building in Istanbul was aimed at damaging relations between Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev.

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Haber Global (Turkish SOCAR media) claims that the real target of the demonstration was the “Aliyev-Erdoğan brotherhood” https://t.co/XlAON67WPj

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Ties between Israel and Azerbaijan

Azerbaijan’s ties with Israel have long been based on trade in military and surveillance equipment, oil supplies and, more recently, aerospace technology. Israel established its embassy in the capital Baku in 1993. Azerbaijan began supplying Israel with oil in 1999. The turning point in relations, however, came in 2010, according to Azerbaijani analyst Zaur Shiriyev who told Global Voices in an interview that Baku needed to modernize its army. and Israel’s search for new partners amid deteriorating relations with Turkey could bring the two countries closer together.

In 2011, Azerbaijan was ranked as Israel’s largest trading partner and exported some 2.5 million tons of oil per year, according to data available at that time. In the same year, the Caspian Drilling Company, a subsidiary of the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan (SOCAR), signed an agreement with the Israeli Med Ashdod oil field, obtaining a five percent stake and offshore drilling rights in the region.

As relations blossomed, Azerbaijan increased its spending on Israeli military equipment. Between 2015 and 2019, Israel provided 60% of arms imports to Azerbaijan, according to data from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. This equipment along with the purchase of Israeli drones helped Azerbaijan achieve victory in the 44-day war with Armenia in 2020.

Azerbaijan continued to maintain a delicate balance following Hamas’ attack on Israel on October 7 and the subsequent war in Gaza. Officially, the country has not condemned Israel. The only action taken so far has been to “vote in favor of the UN General Assembly resolution calling for an immediate humanitarian truce leading to a cessation of hostilities between Israel and Hamas”, which, according to the Foreign policy expert Eldar Mamedov, “is about as far as (Azerbaijan) is willing to go,” in his opinion piece for Eurasianet in November 2023.

Speaking to journalists following his meeting with his Egyptian counterpart Abdel Fattah al-Sisi in Cairo on June 8, President Aliyev also called for an end to the “Gaza tragedy” and the resolution of all problems through negotiation.

In an interview with Voice of America’s Azerbaijani service, Azerbaijani MP Rasim Musabeyli expressed solidarity with Israel shortly after the October 7 attack, saying: “We strongly condemn the attacks that resulted in death and injury of a large number of people. of civilians. In these difficult times, we stand with Israel.

In October 2023, SOCAR was one of six companies granted a license to explore and develop new natural gas reserves in the Eastern Mediterranean. “The winning companies have committed to unprecedented investment in natural gas exploration over the next three years, which will hopefully result in the discovery of new natural gas reservoirs,” he was quoted as saying at the time. Energy Minister Israel Katz.

The same year, Azerbaijan opened its embassy in Tel Aviv.

Currently, Azerbaijan supplies around 40 percent of Israel’s oil through the BTC pipeline and there appears to be potential for growth. In April 2024, energy ministers from the two countries discussed deeper energy ties at a meeting in Dubai.

Turkey’s balance

Then there is Turkey, which has gone from attempting to mediate between Israel and Hamas since October 2023 to announcing total restrictions on all trade with Israel until the end of the war on Gaza. But a recent investigation by Turkish journalist Metin Cihan showed that Azerbaijani oil continued to flow to Israel via BTC, exacerbating existing grievances. Using data from BOTAS – the Turkish state-owned oil and gas company that operates the Turkish section of the BTC – Cihan wrote about how millions of barrels of oil are shipped from Ceyhan on a monthly basis. “We don’t know how much goes to Israel,” Cihan wrote on X. “According to our Energy Minister, we have no influence or authority over where the oil is shipped. Oil is sold by Azerbaijan. We just get our share,” Cihan explained.

In his following tweets, Cihan wrote that after reviewing the relevant agreements, Turkey cannot sanction this trade route given the existing agreements. “According to an agreement with British Petroleum (BP), we would pay compensation to the company in case of delay in oil delivery for any given reason,” Cihan explained. “In accordance with the Baku – Tbilisi – Ceyhan (Turkey) oil pipeline agreement signed, we are obliged to continue supplying oil even in times of war or terrorism. This trade is considered superior to human rights and state sovereignty. In exchange, we receive a share of 80 cents per barrel of oil loaded on tankers from Ceyhan,” Cihan added.

Back in Baku, relations with Israel continue. According to Azerbaijani analyst Rovhsan Mammadli, Azerbaijan is “inclined to quietly strengthen its relations with Israel without getting drawn into great power games”, even if “the potential costs or benefits of alignment with Israel” are difficult to predict as the war on Gaza continues. .