BAKU, Azerbaijan, March 5. South Eastern Europe
and Balkans sub-region remain one of the key destinations of
strategic outlook of Azerbaijan's state oil company (SOCAR), Murad
Heydarov, Executive Director of SOCAR for the Balkans, said in an
exclusive interview with Trend.


"In 2025, we continued our activities in the field of gas supply
and cross border transmission, development of gas distribution
projects, crude oil supply and deeper penetration into oil products
domestic markets, renewables and gas to power energy generation,"
he said.


Speaking about specific projects, Heydarov noted that jointly
with its partner – Asarel Group – SOCAR implemented and finalized
FEED (Front End Engineering Design) Works for construction of the
gas distribution network in Bulgaria’s Panagyurishte. "Their
results require further analysis and evaluations. This will be the
focus of our collective activities in 2026."


Moreover, he said SOCAR ended up 2025 with promising results out
of the hybrid gasification project supplying compressed natural gas
(CNG) to regions not connected to the Bulgargaz network.


"We delivered our gas to 46 industrial and 5 social clients
including a mosque and a church in the Ruse province. The overall
volume of gas delivered reached almost 80 million cubic meters in
2025," SOCAR Balkan's executive director added.


As for activities in the petroleum products market in Bulgaria,
Heydarov said SOCAR is still evaluating commercial opportunities
and perspectives amid initial pilot transactions. "You should
understand the complexity of entering the market dominated by a
traditional supplier. However, we see a lot of benefits for us to
continue our efforts to expand."







He noted that aggregated Azerbaijan Gas Supply Company (AGSC)
and SOCAR gas supply volumes to Bulgaria in 2025 amounted slightly
below 2 bcma which is almost the same volume delivered in 2024.
"The projections for this and next years depend on market demand in
Bulgaria and our regional gas portfolio."


Talking about SOCAR's activities in Albania, Heydarov recalled
that the company presented the NUR pilot gasification project at
the public hearing in Korça in the presence of Prime-Minister of
Albania Edi Rama and Minister of Energy of Azerbaijan Parviz
Shahbazov.


"We started Front End Engineering Design works targeting to get
final results by the end of this year. In parallel to that business
stream, SOCAR Gas Albania started all necessary technical and
commercial studies to check if we could implement an advanced
supply of CNG volumes to Korça ahead of building a gas distribution
network in the city. We look optimistically to start commercial
supplies by the end of 2026. The draft Host Government Agreement
with Albania has been developed, further necessary steps will need
to be taken to progress on this," he added.


Regarding the possibility of SOCAR’s expanding gasification
projects to other regions of Albania, Heydarov said this is not
envisaged at the initial stage of the project but the company does
not exclude to reach out to other locations in the vicinity of
Korça city at next stages.