Caucasus
Coverage across the South Caucasus — Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan.

Four governments approve the Black Sea cable study and GECO puts the cost at €22.1 billion
The feasibility study for the Caspian to Black Sea to Europe green energy corridor is complete and approved by the governments of Azerbaijan, Georgia, Romania and Hungary, the project company GECO said in an investment presentation reported by APA on Saturday. The company puts total investment at about €22.1 billion and plans three high-voltage direct current lines of 1.3 gigawatts each, the first in 2032.

Azeri Light ends the week at $126.59 after a 3.8 percent jump on Saturday
Report.az’s Saturday print put Azeri Light at $126.59 a barrel, up $4.64 on Friday’s print and the largest single step of the week. Over the four prints since Monday’s $118.53 the grade has gained 6.8 percent by CAW’s arithmetic. Azerbaijan’s budget for this year assumes $65.

SOCAR Turkiye refinances $1.6 billion with 22 banks at SOFR plus 230 basis points
SOCAR Turkiye raised $1.6 billion of five-year financing from 22 banks of Europe, the Far East and the Middle East to refinance existing obligations, Report wrote on 21 October citing the company. First Abu Dhabi Bank and Mizuho led the deal, demand was 1.8 times the target, the margin is SOFR plus 230 basis points and SOCAR guarantees the loan. The refinanced loans are not named.

Aliyev approves the alliance treaty with Kyrgyzstan and takes Erdogan’s call about Ankara
Ilham Aliyev signed on 21 October the law approving the Treaty on Allied Relations between Azerbaijan and Kyrgyzstan, signed at Cholpon-Ata on 31 July 2026, Report said at 17:13 Baku. The same evening Recep Tayyip Erdogan telephoned to repeat his congratulations on 35 years of independence and to invite Aliyev to the 13th Organisation of Turkic States summit in Ankara on 29 and 30 October.

TurkPA closes its 15th plenary in Bishkek with a declaration and the next session in Türkiye
The Bishkek Declaration ended the Parliamentary Assembly of Turkic States’ 15th plenary on Tuesday, the assembly’s site reported, after the speakers of Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Türkiye, the Turkish Cypriot speaker as an observer and Uzbekistan’s Senate chair Tanzila Narbayeva as a guest had spoken. On the agenda were four model laws, the 2027 budget and the election of two deputy secretaries general.

BP starts offshore construction on the $2.9 billion Shah Deniz Compression project
Four piles about 70 metres long and 292 tonnes each now stand where the compression platform’s jacket is to be installed in the first half of 2028, BP Azerbaijan said on Tuesday in the Baku agency Report’s account. The platform is to recover about 50 billion cubic metres of gas and 25 million barrels of condensate, and Azeri Light sold at $118.53 the same morning.

Azerbaijan’s crude exports fell 6.9% in volume and rose 13% in value over nine months
The State Customs Committee’s table for January to September puts crude exports at 15.83 million tonnes worth $10.10 billion, with Italy taking 56% of the tonnage. India’s purchases rose fourfold to 524,000 tonnes, and the agency Report has printed no Azeri Light price since Saturday.

Kyrgyzstan takes the TurkPA chair from Kazakhstan with a mallet and a list of priorities
Aibek Dadebai, chairman of Kazakhstan’s Kurultai, handed the symbolic mallet of the Parliamentary Assembly of Turkic States to Jogorku Kenesh speaker Marlen Mamataliev in Bishkek on Tuesday. The assembly’s 15th plenary session runs there on 19 and 20 October with the speakers of Azerbaijan and Turkey in the hall.

Azeri Light falls to $116.26 on Report’s Saturday print after $119.04 on Friday
Report’s Saturday print put Azeri Light at $116.26 a barrel, down $2.78 or 2.33% on Friday’s print of $119.04, which was itself $5.10 or 4.11% below Thursday’s $124.14. No Monday print had appeared on the agency’s energy page by 11:24 Baku time.

Azeri Light falls 2.91% to $124.14 a barrel on Report’s Thursday print
Azerbaijan’s export blend fell $3.73, or 2.91%, to $124.14 a barrel on the world market, Report wrote at 09:58 Baku time on 15 October, after the $127.87 print of Wednesday. December Brent futures stood at $127.55 a barrel on the same page.

Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan switch on a 380 km Caspian cable and sign a Middle Corridor pact
Kassym-Jomart Tokayev and Ilham Aliyev opened the Trans-Caspian fibre-optic line between Sumgayit and Aktau online on 15 October, a 380 km cable on the seabed with a capacity above 400 terabits a second, Report said. In their presence the two governments exchanged a signed agreement on the Middle Corridor and restated a $1 billion trade target, Akorda said.

Baku keeps the CICA chair to 2028 and an Azerbaijani takes the secretary general’s post
The seventh CICA summit in Baku on 15 October extended Azerbaijan’s chairmanship to 2028, made Azerbaijani ambassador Sultan Hajiyev secretary general to 2030 and admitted Laos as the 29th member, Azerbaijan’s foreign ministry said. Kazakhstan founded the forum in 1992 and a Kazakh ran its secretariat until this week. Kassym-Jomart Tokayev said the members had agreed to turn CICA into a full international organisation, a line the ministry omits.

Azeri Light slips 2.85% to $127.87 a barrel, $63 above the budget’s $65
Azerbaijan’s export blend fell $3.75, or 2.85%, to $127.87 a barrel on the world market, Report wrote on 14 October citing an oil-market source, with the FOB Ceyhan price down $4.19 to $116.51. The blend stays about $63 above the $65 a barrel on which the 2026 state budget is calculated.

Pashinyan sets terms for peace: no enclaves on either side, all roads open, no claims
Armenia’s prime minister set out on 14 October what the country should look like after the peace agreement with Azerbaijan is signed and ratified: the same 29,743 square kilometres the state counts today, borders drawn from the Alma-Ata Declaration, enclaves exchanged for land of equal size and all roads open, within TRIPP and beyond it.

Four Central Asian presidents are in Baku for the seventh CICA summit
Tokayev, Mirziyoyev, Rahmon and Japarov are in Baku for the seventh summit of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia on 15 October, their third joint appearance in eight days. Azerbaijan closes two years in the chair with a Baku declaration expected, Laos is to be admitted as the 29th member, and the forum’s depositary and secretary general are Kazakh.

ADB lends Baku $302 million for metro signalling inside a $2.6 billion expansion
The Asian Development Bank approved a $302.38 million loan on 13 October to replace Baku Metro’s signalling with communications-based train control and to digitalise its operations. The project costs $515.07 million, with the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank adding $79.98 million and the government $132.71 million, and sits inside a state programme the bank puts at $2.6 billion.

The IMF slows seven of nine regional economies in 2026 and lifts Uzbekistan and Azerbaijan
The IMF’s October World Economic Outlook, published on Tuesday, has growth slowing this year in seven of the nine economies CAW covers, with Kyrgyzstan still the fastest at 9% and Azerbaijan the slowest at 1.7%. Uzbekistan edges up to 7.8% and Azerbaijan gains too, from 1.4%. World growth slows to 3.1% in 2026 and recovers to 3.4% in 2027, the Fund says.

Azerbaijan’s GDP grows 1.5% in nine months as the oil sector shrinks 1.2%
Azerbaijan’s gross domestic product reached 102.0 billion manats in January to September, 1.5 per cent more than a year earlier, the State Statistics Committee reported on Friday, with the oil and gas sector down 1.2 per cent to 30.3 billion and the rest of the economy up 2.6 per cent to 71.7 billion. Budget revenue ran 2.8 per cent above plan.

Putin, Aliyev and Pezeshkian hold the first three-way summit since 2017 at Avaza
Vladimir Putin, Ilham Aliyev and Masoud Pezeshkian held a trilateral meeting after the Caspian Ecological Summit on Friday, Dmitry Peskov confirmed to Interfax, the first sitting of the Russia, Azerbaijan and Iran format since Tehran in November 2017. APA’s correspondent reported the North-South transport corridor as the main topic, Aliyev then received Pezeshkian separately, and Putin boarded his plane at Turkmenbashi after two full-format bilaterals in two days.
