Former SOCAR Executive Detained in Azerbaijan on Embezzlement Charges

Azerbaijani law enforcement has detained Adnan Ahmadzada, a former senior manager of the state-owned oil company SOCAR, on suspicion of large-scale embezzlement and undermining national energy security, Orda.kz reports.

SOCAR is a key partner of KazMunayGas, and part of Kazakhstan’s oil exports pass through Azerbaijan.

According to Reuters, the 47-year-old was remanded in custody pending trial. The scale of the alleged embezzlement has not been disclosed.

Ahmadzada began his career at SOCAR in 1998 as an expert in the Foreign Economic Relations Department, later leading the Commercial Risk Assessment Department and serving as Chief Marketing Officer.

From 2018, he was Executive Chair of SOCAR Trading, and in 2019 became Deputy Vice President for Marketing and Investments. In 2023, he left the oil industry to establish ABDA Invest Holding, a corporation spanning construction, logistics, agriculture, supermarkets, and movie theaters.

Reuters also recalls that in August, oil transported through the SOCAR-controlled Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline was contaminated with chlorides, lowering quality.

Kazakhstan was initially suspected of contaminating Azeri Light crude, but tests found no organic chlorine compounds in oil from Tengiz and Kashagan. Exports via BTC resumed in mid-September.

It remains unclear whether Ahmadzada’s detention is linked to this incident.

Original Author: Nikita Drobny