The Republic of Azerbaijan announced on Saturday that it will begin exporting natural gas to Syria via Turkey, in an effort to help ease Syria’s growing energy crisis.
The announcement coincided with the official visit of Ahmad Al-Sharaa to Baku — his first visit to Azerbaijan since taking office in December 2024.
During his talks with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, both sides stressed the urgent need to address Syria’s energy shortage and confirmed plans to launch a gas export project via pipeline in the near future.
According to an official statement from the Azerbaijani Presidential Office:
“It was noted that Syria is currently facing a severe energy crisis. In this context, a project for exporting Azerbaijani gas to Syria via Turkish territory was confirmed, which will help enhance the country’s energy security.”
The agreement appears to be aimed at addressing part of the damage to Syria’s electricity grid. In May of this year, Syrian Energy Minister Mohammad Al-Bashir announced that Damascus and Ankara had reached an agreement whereby Turkey would deliver natural gas to northern Syria using existing pipeline infrastructure.
The new tripartite deal between Azerbaijan, Syria, and Turkey builds on that framework and marks the first significant three-way energy cooperation involving Syria since the end of its civil war.
This announcement comes as Interfax News Agency, citing preliminary data from Azerbaijan’s Ministry of Energy, reported that the country’s gas exports dropped by 4.7% between January and July 2025 compared to the same period last year, totaling 12.1 billion cubic meters.
According to the ministry, 6.1 billion cubic meters — or 50% of total exports — went to Europe, 4.9 billion cubic meters (41%) went to Turkey (including 2.9 billion via the TANAP pipeline), and 1.1 billion cubic meters (9%) to Georgia.
In the first half of 2024, Azerbaijan exported 12.7 billion cubic meters of gas: 6.4 billion to Europe, 5 billion to Turkey, and 1.3 billion to Georgia. Gas exports to Europe in the first half of 2025 declined by 4.7% year-over-year, while exports to Georgia and Turkey dropped by 15.4% and 2%, respectively.
According to published documents, Azerbaijan began exporting gas to Europe on December 31, 2022, and has signed supply agreements with 11 European countries — including Italy, Greece, Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary, Serbia, Slovenia, Croatia, Slovakia, North Macedonia, and Germany.
Annual supply volumes are expected to gradually increase to 15 terawatt-hours (TWh), equivalent to about 1.5 billion cubic meters — particularly through long-term contracts with fixed volumes for Italy, Greece, and Bulgaria, and a 10-year agreement with the German company Securing Energy for Europe GmbH (SEFE). Additional agreements with the remaining countries have been signed without fixed purchase volumes.
Azerbaijan also exports gas to Turkey via the Trans-Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline (TANAP) and the South Caucasus Pipeline (SCP), and to Georgia via the SCP and the Mozdok–Gazakh (Magomed–Gazakh) pipeline.
