Azerbaijan positions itself as pivotal European energy supplier at Baku Energy Week opening

    Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev has outlined his country’s dual-focused energy agenda while opening the 31st edition of Baku Energy Week, a flagship regional industry gathering drawing energy firms, diplomats and policymakers from across Europe, Central Asia and the Caspian basin. The keynote address laid out Baku’s ambition to cement its long-term standing as a dependable fossil fuel exporter while scaling up renewable power development amid global shifts in energy security policy.

    Marking three decades since the landmark Shah Deniz gas field investment accord was signed, Aliyev highlighted the field’s transformative role in building Azerbaijan’s modern gas export industry and the rise of the Southern Gas Corridor, which now feeds natural gas to ten EU nations alongside six further global markets. Against lingering European worries over supply volatility stemming from past geopolitical upheaval, the president stressed fossil fuels would remain irreplaceable for global energy security for decades to come, rejecting radical plans for abrupt hydrocarbon phase-out that risk destabilising regional economies. State oil giant SOCAR has also evolved from a recipient of foreign capital into an outbound investor with growing assets across the Middle East and Africa.

    Alongside conventional oil and gas expansion via deepwater developments at the Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli block, the government is pushing an aggressive renewable rollout. Baku targets 2GW of wind and solar capacity by 2027, rising to 8GW by 2032, with hydroelectric facilities exceeding 300MW already operational in Karabakh and East Zangazur and Nakhchivan earmarked as a dedicated green energy hub.

    Cross-border infrastructure remains central to Azerbaijan’s geopolitical strategy. Feasibility work nears completion on a planned Black Sea underwater power cable linking the South Caucasus to Romania and Hungary, while a land-based electricity corridor running through Georgia, Turkey and Bulgaria moves into practical implementation. Aliyev also reiterated commitment to completing the Zangazur transport corridor, set to reshape regional transit connections across the South Caucasus.

    Industry analysts following the event commented that Azerbaijan’s balanced energy roadmap allows it to capitalise on Europe’s persistent search for alternative non-Russian gas sources while aligning with the bloc’s net-zero transition targets, sharpening its strategic weight across the wider Caspian and Central Asian space.

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