The deal, signed on September 23, 2025, and valued, according to Reuters, at potentially €3–3.5 billion, represents far more than a purchase of assets. It is the acquisition of an entire downstream ecosystem: two refineries with a combined processing capacity of around 200,000 barrels per day, more than 4,500 fuel stations, storage facilities, and a nationwide logistics network.
In 2024 alone, IP sold approximately 15 million tons of petroleum products and generated nearly €500 million in profit. This is not expansion. This is repositioning.
Antitrust concerns were always likely to be limited. SOCAR does not dominate upstream or downstream markets in the EU. Italy, meanwhile, is already Azerbaijan’s largest oil customer, accounting for more than half of Azerbaijan’s oil exports in the first months of the current year.
Around 7% of IP’s crude purchases were sourced from Azerbaijani oil. In practical terms, the deal formalizes and vertically integrates an existing energy relationship.
What changes now is control over the value chain. Production, transportation, refining, and retail can increasingly operate within one coordinated framework. This enhances resilience, reduces exposure to market volatility, and stabilizes revenue flows.
SOCAR has already demonstrated such an integrated model in Türkiye and Georgia. However, Italy represents a different level altogether — the first large-scale entry of an Azerbaijani state company into European Union infrastructure. The political dimension is impossible to ignore.
Full article SOCAR’s €3B Italian deal reshapes EU energy | News.az
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