BAKU — SOCAR provided backup liquefied natural gas supplies to Egypt and Jordan when Israeli exports were offline for 32 days during the Hormuz conflict. This period marked one of three interruptions in Israel's natural gas exports to Egypt and Jordan since October 2023.
SOCAR ships approximately three cargoes of liquefied natural gas to Egypt each month. The company also acquired a 10 percent stake in Israel's Tamar natural gas field in June 2025 for $510 million. Vitaliy Baylarbayov, deputy vice president for investments and marketing at SOCAR, said, "It is our first East Mediterranean investment, and we are definitely interested in developing it further."
The shutdown of the Leviathan and Karish gas fields occurred during the Hormuz conflict, marking the third major disruption to Israeli gas exports since October 7, 2023. Jordan, which sources approximately 68 percent of its electricity consumption from natural gas, incurred approximately $2.5 million in additional daily fuel costs during a gas shutdown between March and April. More than half of Jordan's natural gas supply comes from Israeli pipelines.
The country's expenditure on imported liquefied natural gas increased from $560 million to $1.65 billion during the first quarter of 2026. This occurred as Egypt's domestic natural gas production declined to approximately 3.80 billion cubic feet per day by March 2026. The company delivered liquefied natural gas to Egypt for nine months before formalizing a contract with the Egyptian Petroleum Corporation on March 31, 2026. Three SOCAR liquefied natural gas shipments arrived in Egypt in March 2026, totaling approximately $146.5 million.
The Leviathan gas field resumed exports on April 2, 2026, and the Karish gas field resumed exports one week later. The company is negotiating to expand its energy operations into both Egypt and Jordan. Mohamed Fouad, an Egyptian lawmaker and member of the Economic Affairs Committee of the House of Representatives, said, "SOCAR is meant to supplement Israeli pipeline gas, not replace it." Egypt signed a 15-year pipeline gas purchase agreement with Israel in December 2025 for 130 billion cubic meters, valued at approximately $35 billion.
SOCAR operates the largest new exploration zone in Israeli waters, known as Cluster I. Israel's petroleum commissioner issued six exploration licenses for Cluster I in October 2023. Cluster I is a 660-square-mile exploration zone located in northern Israeli waters adjacent to the Leviathan field. SOCAR leads the Cluster I exploration project, with BP and NewMed Energy each holding approximately one-third of the remaining stakes.