Azerbaijan State Oil Company (SOCAR) is scheduled to increase its participation in the energy industry in Israel. The sources reported “balls” that a player, as an operator in a consortium with British petroleum (BP) and Yitzhak Tshuva Newmed Energy (Tase: NWMD) to search for gas in the first mass in the northwest of the economic water of Israel, will sign a plan of action with Israel in energy and faltering in two weeks.
One of the main players behind the expansion of SOCAR Activities in Israel is the CEO of NewMed Energy Yossi Abu, whose efforts will be paid off at the upcoming signing ceremony, which will be attended by the personality of the Azerbaijan government.
Sukar's last step comes after the Israeli Airon Frenkel's huge business deal earlier this year, in which he agreed to sell half of his 10 % share in the Tamar gas field to Azerbaijani Energy Company.
Azerbaijan sees the signing of the I Block work program as a strategic step. These will be the first excavation of SOCAR outside Azerbaijan. This step was supposed to have been implemented soon, but it was postponed due to war and unstable regional security situation.
According to the conditions of the tender granted in 2023, the consortium must submit a plan by October 2026 that includes drilling at at least one of the licenses in the mass and an additional work plan, which will be approved by the Israeli Petroleum Commissioner. After carrying out at least one drilling and meeting the goals of the business plan, companies will be able to expand their activities for another two years.
An important player for Israel and Turkey
SOCAR is offered to explore gas in Israel's economic waters, among other things, exciting geopolitical effects on the region. SOCAR is an important energy supplier for Turkey and Israel. In Türkiye, the company is the largest foreign investor, invested $ 18.5 billion in the past 17 years, and the country’s affiliate company is employing more than 10,000 people.
Azerbaijan is also an important energy resource for Israel. Oil exports achieved a total revenue of $ 14.4 billion for Baku in 2024, with Israel, the sixth largest market. Despite the Turkish trade blockade of Israel, the Erdogan administration has chosen not to stop Azerbaijani supplies to Haifa, although his country. The reason: Ankara's energy dependence on Socrat and the need not to disrupt relations with Azerbaijan.
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Enhancing the international front against Iran
In addition, relations between Israel and Azerbaijan are very close. Azerbaijan was the second largest agent of the Israeli defense industries between 2018 and 2022 (more than 9 % of all Israeli defense exports). The relationship between countries also depends on working together against the great threat from Iran, the South Azerbaijan neighbor.
Azerbaijan and Iran maintain official diplomatic relations, but the two countries often criticize each other publicly – while Iran is trying to work on Azerbaijani. Two months ago, for example, Azerbaijan revealed that she had thwarted an Iranian attempt to harm one of the leaders of the Jewish community on its soil. In January 2023, an attack was carried out on the Azerbaijani embassy in Tehran. Iran also accuses Azerbaijan of allowing, as it claims, Mossad Israel of working from its territory. All this and other regular accusations between countries.
Amid these tensions, last month, the Assistant President of the Azerbaijani met with international relations, with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last month at the Azerbaijani embassy in Tel Aviv to discuss “regional developments.” The main regional developments that the two spoke about were the desire to calm and mediate in Türkiye in developments in Syria. Just one week later, one of the colleagues of Azerbaijani president fell in Ankara, where he met his friend, head of the National Communications Directorate, Fahitin Altoun, one of the closest politicians to Erdogan, with the Azerbaijani embassy in Ankara, who reported that the two discussions were “in global issues.”
This is not the only geopolitical importance of the agreement of the outlines between Azerbaijan and the Israeli Ministry of Energy. Block I is located, where Socale will operate on Israel's naval borders with Lebanon and Cyprus, while Türkiye does not recognize the borders of economic water as shown in international law. Instead, Ankara is the only country that recognizes the Northern Turkish Republic of Cyprus (KKTC) and thus believes it deserves economic water. With the expansion of the activities of the Azerbaijani in the region, it is extremely difficult to see a situation in which the Turks express their opposition and try to thwart this step.
The possibility of regional cooperation and Syrian communication
Another consideration of Socrat to enter the gas exploration union with NewMed and BP in Block I is its strategic location for Azerbaijan. Among other things, Azerbaijan is seeking to find and transport gas to Mercin in southeastern Turkey and from there to European countries through a pipeline that is already present and active in Turkey itself, thus strengthening its strength.
In addition, by expanding their energy activities, Azerbaijan may have larger regional plans to connect many countries to gas pipelines. Of the 10.09 BCM produced from the Tamar reservoir in 2024, about 34 % was sold to Jordan, among others, and of 11.33 BCM produced from Leviathan about 81.4 % was directed to export. The Hashemitte Kingdom was crossed from south to north by the Feder gas pipeline, which links Syria as much as it is related to homes, and from there branches to Tripoli in Lebanon and Banias in western Syria. A senior energy official “Globes” said that there is the possibility of creating a project that would link countries through gas pipelines, at a cost of up to $ 200 million.
In the energy industry in general and gas in particular, this is not a large amount, and it is certainly not unreasonable. Such a project can benefit all parties concerned: Israel, which will obtain a greater income than the economic dependence of gas and Turkey on it; Jordan will win royalties from transport through its territory; Syria, which recently dealt with the fall of the old Assad regime and the creation of a new system that tries to approach the West, will be able to use imported gas in its favor and rebuild relations with Israel.
It was published by Globes, Israel Business News – En.globles.co.il – on March 7, 2025.
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