Israel and Azerbaijan to ink gas exploration deal today

Israel is set to sign an agreement with Azerbaijan today (Sunday), allowing Azerbaijan's official state oil company to engage in gas exploration in Israeli territorial waters, according to JNS.

The deal will reportedly be signed in Energy Minister Eli Cohen's office during a visit to Israel by Azerbaijan’s Economy Minister Mikayil Jabbarov, who also serves as the chairman of State Oil Company of the Republic of Azerbaijan (SOCAR).

According to JNS, "SOCAR is part of a consortium that includes British multinational oil and gas firm BP, and Israel’s NewMed Energy (formerly Delek Drilling), which won a tender from Israel’s Energy Ministry in 2023 to drill in Mediterranean fields adjacent to the country’s Leviathan field, one of the world’s largest offshore gas discoveries."

This deal will deepen Israel's already strong ties with the secular Muslim country in the Caucasus, considered to be a major ally of Israel's in the struggle against Iran.

According to the Atlantic Council, "Azerbaijan is the top energy exporter to Israel, supplying it with 55 percent of its oil imports. For its part, Jerusalem sells Baku billions of dollars’ worth of weapons and military technology. Israeli weapons made up 69 percent of Azerbaijan’s weapon imports from 2016 to 202," which greatly helped the mountain country defeat Armenia in the most recent of their wars.

As it does against Israel, Iran has repeatedly threatened the Azeri state, though in this case over fears of ethnic separatism, as tens of millions of Azeris live on the Iranian side of the border, and the Persian majority within Iran as a whole is fairly small.

Israel also reportedly has a strong intelligence presence in Azerbaijan and, according to some reports, is considering using it as a waypoint on the way to striking targets in Iran should the need arise in the future.