Azerbaijan’s state energy company SOCAR has positioned itself as a crucial intermediary in Israel’s natural gas operations, stepping in to provide alternative supplies when Israeli exports to Egypt and Jordan face interruptions, according to a new analysis.
Since October 2023, Israeli gas shipments to Egypt and Jordan have been halted and resumed three separate times. During these disruptions, SOCAR has expanded its presence across multiple layers of Israel’s energy sector simultaneously.
The Azerbaijani firm now operates the largest new exploration area in Israeli waters, owns 10% of the Tamar gas field, delivers approximately three liquefied natural gas shipments to Egypt monthly, and collaborates with a Qatari partner to restore power facilities in Syria using Azerbaijani gas transported through Turkey.
“It is our first East Mediterranean investment, and we are definitely interested in developing it further,” Vitaliy Baylarbayov, SOCAR’s deputy vice president for investments and marketing, told The Media Line at SOCAR headquarters on Monday, discussing the Tamar stake finalized in June 2025 for $510 million.
The strategic importance of these arrangements became evident during the 32-day shutdown of the Leviathan and Karish fields during the Hormuz war, marking the third significant interruption of Israeli gas exports since October 7, 2023.
Israeli energy security analyst Elai Rettig of the Begin-Sadat Center at Bar-Ilan University documented this pattern in research published May 6. Jordan, which relies on natural gas for roughly 68% of its electricity and receives more than half from Israeli pipelines, incurred an estimated $2.5 million daily in additional fuel expenses during the March-April shutdown.
Egypt’s imported LNG costs tripled in the first quarter of 2026, jumping from $560 million to $1.65 billion. While Leviathan resumed exports on April 2 and Karish followed a week later, the shift toward alternative suppliers appears permanent as Egypt and Jordan seek backup options for future disruptions.
SOCAR’s newest acquisition is Cluster I, a 660-square-mile exploration zone in northern Israeli waters, adjacent to the Leviathan gas field. Israel’s petroleum commissioner granted six exploration licenses there in October 2023, weeks after the Hamas attack froze the broader bidding process. SOCAR leads the project alongside BP and NewMed Energy, each holding roughly one-third stakes.
The Tamar field is operated by Chevron, the American oil company that also runs Leviathan. Chevron acquired both fields in 2020 through its purchase of Noble Energy and approved the Leviathan expansion in January. SOCAR’s 10% Tamar stake places the Azerbaijani state company within a Chevron-operated field.
Foreign ownership of Tamar now reaches 46%, divided among Chevron’s 25% operating share, Mubadala Energy of Abu Dhabi’s 11% stake purchased from Delek in 2021, and SOCAR’s 10% position.
Beyond exploration agreements, SOCAR’s trading division had been delivering LNG to Egypt for nine months before the contract with the Egyptian Petroleum Corporation was officially signed in Cairo on March 31. Three SOCAR shipments reached Egypt in March 2026 alone, valued at roughly $146.5 million.
Egyptian lawmaker Mohamed Fouad, who serves on the Economic Affairs Committee of the House of Representatives in Cairo, explained that SOCAR is intended to supplement Israeli pipeline gas, not replace it. Egypt’s December 2025 agreement with Israel for 130 billion cubic meters of pipeline gas over 15 years, worth roughly $35 billion, remains “structurally irreplaceable” in Cairo’s calculations, Fouad said.
What SOCAR provides instead is what Fouad calls “resilience engineering around Leviathan dependence.” SOCAR Trading increases shipments when Israeli production drops or summer demand peaks, and reduces them when Israeli supplies return to normal levels.
Egypt and ExxonMobil formalized a separate long-term arrangement at Egypt’s energy conference earlier this year. John Ardill, ExxonMobil’s vice president for global exploration, told The Media Line at the Baku Convention Center on Tuesday that the company signed a preliminary agreement with Egypt’s petroleum ministry to ship Cypriot gas through Egypt’s existing LNG terminals rather than construct new export facilities.
ExxonMobil has completed evaluation of its Glaucus gas discovery off Cyprus and is finishing assessment of Pegasus. The company recently confirmed that the gas is commercially viable. Ardill noted that moving from discovery to actual production typically requires five to 10 years.
Turkish Energy Minister Alparslan Bayraktar delivered President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s opening message at the Baku Forum on Monday and outlined what he called “the electricity version of TANAP,” a power line running through Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Bulgaria to southeast Europe.
Bayraktar’s proposals include a 60-mile underwater pipeline announced in May between southern Turkey and northern Cyprus, scheduled to begin operation by 2028. The pipeline can transport gas in either direction, though the Republic of Cyprus learned about it through media reports.
The Azerbaijani state oil company serves as Turkey’s largest international investor, with $19.5 billion deployed since 2008 across the STAR refinery at Aliağa, the Petkim petrochemical complex, the SOCAR Terminal container port, and a majority stake in the Trans-Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline (TANAP).
In Syria, SOCAR has partnered with Qatari company UCC Holding and Turkey’s BOTAŞ to supply natural gas from the Caspian’s Shah Deniz field across Turkish territory to power plants in Damascus, Homs, and Aleppo, restored under post-Assad reconstruction beginning in August 2025. “We are bringing light, if you wish,” Baylarbayov said.
That same gas corridor could potentially carry Israeli gas in the opposite direction, Rettig told The Media Line. SOCAR’s exploration zone inside Israeli waters creates a buffer that shields Israeli-produced gas from political friction between Jerusalem and Ankara. By marketing the gas as Azerbaijani, SOCAR can help it reach buyers who would refuse direct purchases from Israel.
Asked whether SOCAR’s investments harm Israel, Rettig said no. The East Mediterranean is a gas-hungry region, in his view, and having multiple suppliers benefits Israel as much as it protects against Israeli supply disruptions. “SOCAR is considered a supplement rather than a competitor,” he said.
