BAKU, Azerbaijan, August 14. Electricity exports from Azerbaijan to Russia rose in the first half of 2026.
This was announced in a report published by the Azerbaijani State Statistical Committee.
According to the report, during the mentioned period, Azerbaijan exported 64.6 million kWh of electricity to Russia.
Compared to the same months of 2025, Azerbaijan's electricity exports to Russia grew by 3.5 million kWh, or 5.8%, in volume and by $205,000, or 7.5%, in value.
Meanwhile, during the first six months of 2026, Azerbaijan imported 38 million kWh of electricity worth $1.5 million from Russia.
This figure, in value terms, was $95,000, or 6.7% more, and in volume, 3.48 million kWh, or 8.4% less, than the same period last year.
In total, from January through June 2026, Azerbaijan exported 12.43 billion cubic meters of natural gas (in gaseous form) to 8 countries, worth $4.1 billion. This represents a decrease of $436.46 million, or 9.6%, in value, and an increase of 65.8 million cubic meters, or 0.5%, in volume, compared to the same period last year.
In addition, during the first six months of 2026, Azerbaijan imported natural gas (in gaseous form) from only one country — Iran — in the amount of 193.18 million cubic meters, valued at $13 million. During the same period last year, Azerbaijan imported 208.24 million cubic meters of natural gas from two countries — Russia and Turkmenistan — worth $31.98 million. Thus, compared to the same period last year, natural gas imports to Azerbaijan decreased by $18.9 million in value, or 59.3%, and by over 12 million cubic meters in volume, or 5.9%.
Meanwhile, Azerbaijani and Russian officials also expressed interest in expanding economic cooperation between the two countries. Following a meeting with Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov in Moscow this month, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov stated that the parties discussed increasing trade, expanding direct investment, and cooperation on the western branch of the North-South International Transport Corridor.
“Given that the latest meeting of the intergovernmental commission took place in April, we discussed trade and economic cooperation. We noted a mutual interest in further increasing trade volume in the future. Last year, the volume of bilateral trade reached about $5 billion. Russia remains one of Azerbaijan’s main economic partners. There is significant potential for increasing trade volume and expanding direct investment. The volume of Russian investment in Azerbaijan amounts to about $11 billion. More than 1,400 commercial enterprises with Russian capital are operating in the republic,” he said.
For his part, Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov described the regular activities of the intergovernmental commission as one of the main mechanisms for economic cooperation and emphasized that, despite global economic difficulties, the overall trend in Azerbaijani-Russian economic relations remains positive.
“I am confident that today we will be able to discuss trade and economic cooperation in detail. One of the key elements in this area is the regular dialogue within the intergovernmental commission between Azerbaijan and the Russian Federation. The 24th meeting of the commission took place in April of this year. In this context, we believe that, despite all the difficulties in the global economy as a whole, the trend between our countries is positive. Today, we will likely focus in more detail on the figures and indicators for 2025, as well as on the directions outlined for the near future,” he said.
