The United States blocked the supply of Azerbaijani gas to Ukraine along the route of the "Vertical Corridor" — an infrastructure chain of gas pipelines passing through Greece, Romania, Bulgaria and Moldova. The formal reason is Washington's demand to obtain exclusive rights for American companies to supply liquefied natural gas to Ukraine.
In fact, the Azerbaijani edition writes haqqin.az , we are talking about an attempt by the United States to ensure, on the eve of the 2025/2026 winter period, the priority of its own LNG in the Central and Eastern Europe.Against the background of these processes, the newspaper notes, a deal was signed in Athens between Naftogaz of Ukraine and a new company Atlantic-See LNG Trade, created by the Greek Aktor Group and DEPA. In accordance with the agreement, the Greek side undertakes to supply Ukraine with American liquefied natural gas through the Vertical Corridor system from December 2025 to March 2026.
Sources in the Greek government confirm that the United States vetoed the supply of Azerbaijani pipeline gas along this route, the publication says. The main motive is the high competitiveness of Azerbaijani gas supplied to Greece through the Trans—Adriatic Pipeline (TAP).
"The cost of TAP supplies is significantly lower than the cost of American LNG, which creates price risks for Washington. An additional argument is American suspicions related to the fact that Russian gas mixed with Azerbaijani gas can allegedly flow through TAP. However, the European Commission officially refuted these statements, emphasizing the technical impossibility of such a mixture, as well as the absence of facts confirming the re—export of Russian raw materials under the guise of Azerbaijani," the publication said.
Greek edition energia.gr In this regard, he recalls that "despite the political noise raised, Azerbaijan provides Europe with a small but strategically important share of gas imports, which is an alternative to Russian raw materials." Moreover, Azerbaijan, according to data for 2024, annually produces 24.4 million tons of oil and 25.2 billion cubic meters of natural gas, which "eliminates the need to buy Russian gas for re-export."
In 2024, Europe was still importing natural gas from Russia, Norway, Algeria, Azerbaijan, as well as LNG from the USA, Qatar and other countries. Natural gas still provides about 22% of the energy balance of the European Union, and almost 90% of the gas consumed in the EU is imported. Thus, the United States, having become the largest LNG supplier to Europe, is actively striving to maintain market dominance and minimize competition. The volume of SOCAR's supplies to Europe is about 10 billion cubic meters annually, and in the coming years it is planned to double the capacity of TAP to 20 billion cubic meters, which will allow, as writes haqqin.az , to provide raw materials to both EU countries and consumers of the "Vertical Corridor"
"Azerbaijan's role in ensuring the energy balance of the European Union acquires a strategic dimension. With Russia's withdrawal from the position of a key supplier, the EU has an extremely limited choice in terms of pipeline supplies of natural gas. The Caspian region is actually the only available land source. The Southern Gas Corridor, including TANAP and TAP, is an infrastructure that has proven its effectiveness," the newspaper notes.
However, it is emphasized in the publication, in accordance with the agreement signed on November 16, deliveries to Ukraine will be limited to American LNG, as Washington seeks to ensure maximum utilization of its own gas liquefaction terminals.
It is noted. In these conditions, Baku is considered by Washington as a potential "hub partner" in the field of energy security, transit and regional stabilization.
"Azerbaijan's victory in the war with Armenia, as well as Iran's defeat in the recent armed confrontation with Israel, strengthened Baku's position and strengthened the US interest in deepening cooperation," the Azerbaijani edition stated.
In this light, Washington's decision to block supplies to SOCAR's gas supply through the "Vertical Corridor" is called controversial.
As the article says, "diplomatic sources in Baku" emphasize:
"Before entering into an energy dispute with Azerbaijan, Washington needs to understand more deeply the architecture of the regional gas market and the technological logic of transport routes."
It is also claimed that the issue of "Azerbaijan importing limited volumes of Russian gas needed by Baku to ensure internal balance", "TAP is in no way connected with the Azerbaijani internal network, thus, suspicions about the "mixing" of Russian and Azerbaijani gas are unfounded and do not correspond to the actual configuration of the infrastructure."
In aggregate, as concludes haqqin.az "all these data prove that Azerbaijan remains a backbone element of the European gas infrastructure, and the US decision to limit the use of the Azerbaijani resource in the "Vertical Corridor" is dictated more by political and commercial interests than by the logic of Europe's long-term energy security."