Azerbaijan, Türkiye Inaugurate Natural Gas Pipeline to Supply Nakhchivan

Azerbaijan and Türkiye have inaugurated operations of a new natural gas pipeline, connecting Azerbaijan's Nakhchivan exclave to Türkiye's gas network.

On Wednesday, the presidents of both countries participated in the opening ceremony of the Ighdir-Nakhchivan gas pipeline via video link from Ankara.

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said the Ighdir-Nakhchivan gas pipeline heralds a new chapter for Nakhchivan’s energy security.

“Gas from Azerbaijan will be transferred to Nakhchivan through Türkiye via a swap agreement, permanently resolving this issue for Nakhchivan,” President Aliyev stated.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan lauded the new pipeline as complement to the previous strategic initiatives of Ankara and Baku.

“The 80-kilometer-long pipeline, built by BOTAŞ, has a daily transport capacity of up to 2 million cubic meters and will fully meet Nakhchivan's natural gas needs for at least 30 years,” he said, referring to the Turkish section of the pipeline.

The presidents participated in the inauguration of the Ighdir-Nakhchivan gas pipeline via videoconference. The pipeline was launched by the Azerbaijani and Turkish energy ministers in Ighdir, where the pipeline originates.

Azerbaijan’s Energy Minister Parviz Shahbazov stated that the project will enhance Nakhchivan's gas supply diversity while benefiting both the Nakhchivan and Ighdir communities. He noted that the pipeline currently has a maximum transmission capacity of 730 million cubic meters, with possibilities for future expansions.

The new pipeline stretches from the far eastern Ighdir province of Türkiye to the Sadarak district in Nakhchivan on a 97.5-kilometer-long route. The length of the Azerbaijani section of the pipeline is 17.5 km, while the Turkish section is 80 km.

Officials from Azerbaijan and Türkiye signed a memorandum of understanding in December 2020 to build the Ighdir-Nakhchivan gas pipeline to enhance Nakhchivan's energy security after decades of isolation.

In September 2023, President Aliyev and President Erdogan broke the ground for the project, which is operated by Azerbaijan's state-run energy conglomerate SOCAR and BOTAŞ, the state-owned crude oil and natural gas pipelines and trading company in Türkiye.

Nakhchivan's 500,000 residents have faced challenges in nearly all aspects of life due to the consequences of the war with Armenia, including in the supply of the half a billion cubic meters of natural gas consumed annually.

The exclave on Azerbaijan’s southwest corner, surrounded by Armenia, Iran, and Türkiye, lost a direct land connection with mainland Azerbaijan due to the Soviet occupation of the South Caucasus region in 1920.

Following the region’s incorporation, Soviet rulers transferred some Azerbaijani territories, including its historic region of Zangezur, which borders Nakhchivan, to the newly created Armenian state.

Armenia’s military aggression against Azerbaijan in the early 1990s to occupy the Karabakh region, which is an internationally recognized part of Azerbaijan, exacerbated Nakhchivan’s isolation.

The full-scale war lasted from 1991 until a ceasefire deal in 1994, and as a result, Armenia occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan’s internationally recognized territory – the Karabakh region and surrounding districts. The bloody war claimed the lives of over 30,000 Azerbaijanis and expelled one million more from their homeland.

All kinds of energy, electricity and transport connections, including highways and railways to and from Nakhchivan, were closed by Armenia. Overland and air connection with Nakhchivan is available either via Iran in the south or through Türkiye in the west.

After the occupation of Azerbaijan's Karabakh region by Armenia, the natural gas pipeline stretching from mainland Azerbaijan to Nakhchivan became dysfunctional.

Since then, SOCAR has been transporting natural gas to Nakhchivan in a swap operation with Iran, which gets gas from Baku and delivers it to Nakhchivan.

Political analysts from Baku and Ankara have zeroed in on the Ighdir-Nakhchivan pipeline as a game-changer that redesigns the regional energy landscape, including for long-term gas supplies via Iran.

“Previously, natural gas supply through Iran posed certain risks to Nakhchivan's energy security. Until recently, Iran played a significant role in Nakhchivan's gas supply and attempted to use this as leverage in its relations with Azerbaijan. However, with the commissioning of the new pipeline, Iran's influence in this regard will be significantly reduced,” said Baku-based analyst Agil Mammadov.

According to him, the new pipeline will minimize certain risks to Nakhchivan's energy security originating from the transmission via Iran and enable Azerbaijan to directly supply its autonomous region with natural gas using its own resources.