Azerbaijan’s state energy company SOCAR and Turkey’s state pipeline operator BOTAŞ signed an agreement on Monday to supply natural gas from the second phase of Azerbaijan’s Absheron gas field, a project expected to boost regional gas exports from 2029.
Around half of the gas produced from the project is expected to be sold to Turkey under the agreement, which was signed during Baku Energy Week. Azerbaijan is one of Turkey’s main natural gas suppliers, and the deal is expected to strengthen energy ties between the two countries as Ankara seeks to diversify its sources of imported gas.
The agreement was signed by SOCAR President Rovshan Najaf, BOTAŞ Chairman and General Manager Abdulvahit Fidan, TotalEnergies Senior Vice President for Exploration and Production in Europe Martina Opizzi and Mohammed Al Aryani, president of international gas at XRG, the international investment arm of the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC).
The companies expect to make a final investment decision on the second phase of the Absheron project later this year. TotalEnergies, which operates the field, said production is scheduled to begin on September 1, 2029, with annual output expected to exceed 4 billion cubic meters of gas.
The Absheron field, located about 100 kilometers southeast of Baku in the Caspian Sea, began producing gas under its first development phase in July 2023. It is estimated to contain about 350 billion cubic meters of natural gas, making it the second largest gas field in the Caspian Sea after the Shah Deniz field.
The second phase is expected to increase Azerbaijan’s gas export capacity and support energy security in Turkey and other regional markets.
The field is being developed by a consortium consisting of TotalEnergies and SOCAR, each of which has a 35 percent stake, and ADNOC, which acquired a 30 percent stake in the project in August 2025.
SOCAR has become one of the largest foreign investors in Turkey through assets including the STAR refinery and petrochemical operations. The company also plays a major role in energy infrastructure linking Azerbaijan and Turkey, including the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) oil pipeline and the Trans-Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline (TANAP).
Since the start of Israel’s military campaign in Gaza, which has faced genocide accusations from UN experts and rights groups such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch as well as many genocide scholars, SOCAR has faced repeated protests in Turkey from pro-Palestinian groups accusing the company of enabling a genocide by supplying oil to Israel through the BTC pipeline.