Azerbaijan

Azerbaijan is a Caspian energy-producing state with a population of approximately 10 million and a GDP heavily dependent on hydrocarbon exports. It achieved independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, and since the late 1990s has developed the Shah Deniz gas and oil fields in the Caspian Sea as the economic and strategic foundation of its Foreign Policy. The state energy company SOCAR (State Oil Company of Azerbaijan Republic) manages the country's upstream production and holds equity in the export pipeline infrastructure. The government of President Ilham Aliyev has maintained a broadly multi-vector Foreign Policy, cultivating relations with Russia, the EU, Turkey and Iran simultaneously.

Azerbaijan's principal route to European gas markets is the Southern Gas Corridor: a chain of three pipelines running from the Caspian to southern Italy. Shah Deniz gas flows via the South Caucasus Pipeline (SCP) into Turkey, then via the Trans-Anatolian Pipeline (TANAP) across Turkey to the Greek-Turkish border, and finally via the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) through Greece and Albania into Italy. Capacity on TAP has been expanding toward 20 bcm/year. Within Turkey, BOTAS takes a share of the Azerbaijani gas under long-term supply agreements with SOCAR, commingling it with Russian and Iranian molecules in the Turkish National Grid before export to the EU as a blended product.

In the context of European energy diversification from Russia, Azerbaijan has positioned itself as a reliable alternative Caspian supplier and negotiated expanded supply agreements with the EU from 2022 onwards. This positioning carries a complication: because BOTAS commingles Azerbaijani supply with Russian gas before exporting to the EU at the Kipi crossing, Azerbaijan's commercial volumes are also the cover under which origin-laundering of Russian molecules can occur. Azerbaijan's strategic value to Europe as a diversification partner and the BOTAS blending gap are, structurally, the same route.

On 16 July 2026, Thailand placed Azerbaijan in a new 65-country Visa-on-arrival tier under a restructured three-tier Visa-exemption scheme, alongside Belarus and Serbia, part of a wider reshuffle that also created a 30-day tier for all 27 EU states and a 15-day tier for Mauritius and Seychelles. The announcements await Royal Gazette publication before taking effect.