Ukraine’s state-owned oil and gas company Naftogaz has signed its first deal with the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan (SOCAR) to import natural gas via the Trans-Balkan route.
Naftogaz announced the deal via a press release on Monday.
‘This is a small volume but strategically important step that paves the way for long-term cooperation. It is also another example of diversifying supply sources and strengthening Ukraine’s energy security’, the CEO of Naftogaz, Serhii Koretskyi, said.
In the press release, Naftogaz also extended its gratitude to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi, the Ukrainian government, and Ukraine’s Energy Ministry ‘for their support in reaching this agreement’, as well as to its Azerbaijani colleagues ‘for their trust’.
Ukraine announced the new Trans-Balkan route through Bulgaria, Romania, and Moldova in May 2025
‘Having phased out Russian energy carriers, Ukraine, like our partners in the EU, is actively working to find alternative gas supply routes. The use of the Trans-Balkan route is important in this context’, a press release by Ukraine’s Energy Minister Herman Halushchenko said at the time.
A source told Reuters in June that the new route could allow Ukraine to import up to 1 billion cubic metres of gas between June–October 2025, with a daily import capacity of 7,000 cubic metres.
The Ukrainian government reportedly previously announced that the country needed to import at least 4 billion cubic metres of gas for the 2025–2026 heating season.
As part of its effort to shift away from dependency on Russian energy, the EU has increasingly turned toward Azerbaijan. However, there are concerns that Azerbaijan still works to launder Russian fossil fuels to be sold in the European market.
Previously, in May, the UK sanctioned a state-owned Azerbaijani tanker as part of efforts to block Russia’s oil trading shadow fleet.
An investigation by the Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) found that the ship in question, the Zangazur, was owned by the Azerbaijan Caspian Shipping Company and that the Azerbaijani government owned the entirety of the company’s shares.
Based on shipping data, the OCCRP recorded the Zangazur paying regular visits to the Russian port of Primorsk, west of Saint Petersburg, which features an oil terminal, as well as to the Turkish port of Nemrut, where Azerbaijan’s state-owned STAR oil refinery is located.
According to data collected by the advocacy group Global Witness, Azerbaijan’s STAR refinery processed a large amount of Russian crude oil in 2024.
‘The vast majority of STAR products imported by the EU this year have likely been made from Russian oil’, Global Witness stated in a July 2024 report.
Such imports follow a 2022 Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), according to which Azerbaijan would double its supply of gas to the EU, which would allegedly, as European Commission President Ursula Von der Leyen highlighted at the time, ‘compensate for cuts in supplies of Russian gas and contribute significantly to Europe’s security of supply’.
Xandie (Alexandra) Kuenning
