His Majesty King Mswati III has formally invited the State Oil Company of the Republic of Azerbaijan (SOCAR) and Azerbaijani mining firms to invest in the Kingdom of Eswatini.
The strategic invitation was extended during a high-profile courtesy call to Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev in Baku, ahead of the 13th World Urban Forum (#WUF13), held in partnership with United Nations Habitat. Addressing the escalating geopolitical tensions in the Middle East, His Majesty highlighted how global instability has severely disrupted the supply chains of fuel, fertilizers, and other critical petroleum by-products worldwide.
As a leading global powerhouse in oil and gas production, Azerbaijan is uniquely positioned to help mitigate these vulnerabilities. King Mswati III proposed that Azerbaijan leverage Eswatini’s stable economic environment to establish a robust footprint in the African energy sector. “In Eswatini, we are currently building a Strategic Oil Reserve, which will be able to store fuel for about two months, and we will be happy to partner with your companies in this project, in terms of supply,” His Majesty stated. “We can even go beyond just the storage facility and build an oil refinery in the long term.”
A central pillar of Eswatini’s pitch is its unrivalled geographic and logistical positioning within the Southern African Development Community (SADC). “We believe as a country we are strategically placed to supply our Southern Africa region as we are surrounded by two big neighbours in South Africa and Mozambique in the east,” the King emphasized. International investors gain direct, friction-free access to a massive regional market by establishing infrastructure in Eswatini,
President Ilham Aliyev warmly received the delegation’s proposal, acknowledging the profound impact that current global challenges have had on critical supplies like fuel and fertilizer. Expressing solidarity with His Majesty’s concerns over the fragile international state of affairs, President Aliyev voiced hope for lasting global solutions.
In a direct response to the investment pitch, President Aliyev immediately tasked his ministerial cabinet to investigate tangible opportunities within Eswatini’s mining and oil refinery sectors. He noted that SOCAR—a 100% state-owned enterprise with robust, successful multinational operations in Turkey and Italy—is well-equipped to explore and scale into the African market.