The view from Baku

I departed Azerbaijan six days before neighbouring Iran was struck by the first volley of Israeli missiles, and the world is understandably fixated on this unfolding crisis.

With the Middle East teetering once again on the brink of all-out regional war, Azerbaijan stands out as a beacon of (relative) stability.

Azerbaijan’s flagship energy event – Baku Energy Week – celebrated its 30th birthday just days before Israel and Iran began raining down misery upon each other. The contrast could not be more stark.

The highlight of the week was Baku Energy Forum: two days of politicos and executives discussing high-level geopolitical, strategic and commercial imperatives for Europe and the South Caucasus region.

The forum is not the easiest reporting assignment. But that is exactly why it is worth the effort. Not many journalists attend, so the best stories tend to go unreported.

The biggest scoop I uncovered was last week’s news that Ukraine is again looking seriously at developing its shale gas resource (nice to see the story picked up by the Telegraph newspaper).

Today, I am excited to publish a double-whammy of original content:

• Exclusive Q&A with SOCAR (opens in new window)
• Special multimedia report from Baku Energy Forum (below)

💥 EXCLUSIVE: SOCAR Q&A

I had an unforgettable one-hour sit-down with Vitaliy Baylarbayov, a high-ranking executive at Azerbaijan’s state oil and gas company SOCAR.

Baylarbayov is surprisingly outspoken for a career oil man. And with three decades of industry experience, he has played a role in Azerbaijan’s transformation from post-Soviet backwater to regional oil-fuelled powerhouse.

I don’t often publish verbatim Q&As but made an exception because the conversation was so candid, it felt like the only way to do it justice. And honestly, it is quite rare to get quotes with this level of commercial insight signed off from the press office of a major NOC.

Check out the full interview here 👇

SOCAR: ‘Our customers are behind a glass wall’

EXCLUSIVE: Vitaliy Baylarbayov talks TTF, tariffs, hydrogen and more…

💥 Energy Flux 💥Seb Kennedy

💥 Special multimedia report

I bought a new GoPro to document my planned trip to Oil Rocks, but sadly this excursion was cancelled due to high winds that prevented vessel transfers to Caspian oil platforms all week (very disappointing).

Silver lining: the change of plan gave me more time to put the new kit to good use at the conference.

The result is today’s post: a special multimedia report from Baku Energy Week that tells Azerbaijan’s energy story in 2025 from a first-person perspective. It includes more than half an hour of original audiovisual material, including:

🗣️ 4-minute highlights of President Ilham Aliyev’s (largely unreported) opening remarks

📹 6-minute VLOG summary of the main talking points from Day 1 (energy ministerial)

🎥 7-minute VLOG summary of Day 2 (commercial & regulatory)

🎙️ 5-minute audio interview with Moldova’s energy secretary about the Trans-Balkan Pipeline and Vertical Corridor

📺 20-minute face-to-face with Azerbaijan’s deputy energy minister to discuss the Black Sea Interconnector between Georgia and Romania

💥 Article stats: 2,600 words, 17-min reading time, 5 video reels (+40 mins)

The Caspian conundrum

Getting under the skin of Baku Energy Week

Day 1: Politics forever

Baku Energy Forum was all about renewed momentum and investment in Caspian oil and gas upstream resources that, as so many delegates slavishly repeated, Europe desperately needs.

That was the vibe from day one, when Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev kicked off proceedings with a not-so-sly jab at the Iberian blackout: