Azerbaijan exported 30,252 metric tons of finished lubricating oils in 2025, according to calculations by local news agency Report.az based on official data from the State Statistics Committee. This marked a 41% decrease in volume compared with 2024.
Among key export destinations, Iraq received 3,869 tons of Azerbaijani lubricants, down 28% year on year. Ukraine took 4,209 tons, a 62% decline compared with the previous year. Bulgaria imported 3,946 tons, down 55%, while Turkey received 2,285 tons, 24% less than in 2024. In Estonia, on the contrary, shipments rose sevenfold to 1,690 tons.
In addition to traditional regional markets, 2025 saw Azerbaijan resume exports to Panama and Venezuela. Shipments to Panama totaled 45 tons, and Venezuela took 189 tons – the first such deliveries in 14 years.
Azerbaijan’s finished lubricant exports are anchored in its domestic refining and blending capacity, led by the state oil major Socar (State Oil Company of the Azerbaijan Republic). Socar’s Heydar Aliyev Oil Refinery in Baku produces base oils and other feedstocks used for finished lubricant blending domestically and for export. Its base oil plant has capacity to produce 150,000 t/y of API Group I base oils.
Alongside the oil major’s operations, three smaller private blenders and grease producers operate in the country. Technol is a mid-size lubricant blender located in Sumqayit, a port city near Baku, with finished lubricant manufacturing capacity of 50,000 t/y. Aminol is another blender based there and reported output of 30,000 tons in 2022. The National Academy of Sciences in 2021 established production of a range of greases, including Solidol-J, Graphite Grease and Litol-24, for industrial, agricultural and automotive applications.
In addition to traditional blending operations, the Caspian Lubricants Recycling project – an Azerbaijani-Bulgarian joint venture – is under construction near Baku in the Sumgait Industrial Park. This facility, the first waste oil recycling and processing plant in Azerbaijan, is designed to convert used motor and industrial oils into Group I base oil and other products. The plant aims to generate base oil domestically and channel a significant portion of its output toward export markets, with construction advancing and commissioning planned for mid-2026.