Azim Novruzov’s dirty oil: How Sumato Energy and Alkagesta became a front for smuggling and defrauding SOCAR

Suddenly, the trail of Azim Novruzov — a scandal-plagued oil trader holding British citizenship — emerged within the prominent criminal proceedings against SOCAR’s top manager, Adnan Akhmedzade.

Cool billionaire Adnan Ahmedzadeh (also a British citizen) has been in a pre-trial detention center in Baku since September 2025. Recently, Mr. Ahmedzadeh’s arrest was extended: Azerbaijani Rothschild is accused of financial fraud and other crimes. And a huge amount of Adnan Ahmedzadeh’s property and thick bank accounts have been seized. Before his arrest, Mr. Ahmedzadeh served as deputy head of the investment department of the state-owned company SOCAR.

Azerbaijani media were then full of reports that the detained Adnan Ahmedzadeh cheated Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev out of $5 billion.

And now not even 6 months have passed ‒ and, they say, in the prison cell Adnan Ahmedzade, who was used to eating Neftechalin black caviar with ladles, spoke! And the investigative authorities now have a significant dossier on his business partner Azim Novruzov, and in parallel, journalists from the famous Maltese publication The Maltese Herald conducted their investigations, since a division of SOCAR operates on the island of Malta under the melodic name Alkagesta.

This same Alkagesta ‒ is the largest oil bunkering company, it uses the oil terminal in Birzebbuja to transport oil. And together with Adnan Akhmedzade, Azim Novruzov is directly related to the vigorous activities of Alkagesta as the owner of Sumato Energy FZE. And the notorious billionaire Anar Aliyev, former Minister of Labor and Social Protection of Azerbaijan, is directly related to the same office. Both Novruzov and Aliyev ‒ are graduates of Nakhichevan State University. And it seems that their "friendship" has been going on since their student days.

It should be noted that not only Baku investigative authorities, but also the British authorities became interested in the large-scale personality of Azim Novruzov. And today, EU and British authorities are investigating Alkagesta for selling oil using fake certificates.

SOCAR branch and offshore harbor

Since September 2025, journalists from "The Maltese Herald" have made several investigations into how the "branch" of SOCAR operates on the island of Malta, with the ardent participation of Azim Novruzov.

And a large number of paragraphs are devoted to Mr. Novruzov in these investigations, but Novruzov, hiding in London through his British lawyers, rejected all accusations against his person.

"Daguerreotype" by Azim Novruzov on the pages The Maltese Herald

Novruzov also denied that he had close contact with Adnan Ahmedzade.

 He claims to have met Ahmedzadeh while they were working for Union Grand Energy Pte Ltd (UGE).

 These meetings were not regular and were limited only to trade issues. Novruzov himself finished working at UGE in April 2013.

And he went to live with his family in Great Britain.

Adnan Ahmedzade

But Maltese journalists continued to publish investigations about Alkagesta, Malta’s largest oil cargo processing company.

And when information appeared about the large sale of oil to Nigeria from the territory of Malta, it became obvious that there is a large oil merchant in Malta. And also, as The Maltese Herald journalists reported, Malta contributes to the work of the Russian shadow fleet due to the extremely irregular relocation of Maltese ships to the Black Sea and increased activity at Hurd’s Bank (the Maltese offshore harbor of the shadow fleet).

Malta is actually a kind of trade division created by SOCAR employees. They work directly with Russian oil through the "shadow fleet" and store this oil in Malta according to individual certificates of Turkey and Kazakhstan.

The authorities of Great Britain and the EU began a joint investigation.

Alkagesta made a profit of 40 million euros, the company has assets of 200 million euros

And there is a possibility that Chinese oil, which is imported to Malta for sale to third parties at Hurd’s Bank, is also a Russian product.

Alkagesta has recently made about 40 million euros in profit, the company has assets worth more than 200 million euros, and oil reserves are estimated at up to 100 million euros.

Malta’s convenient location is ideal for accessing Libyan oil and illegal offshore oil trading through the offshore harbor of Hurd’s Bank.

But most importantly, Alkagesta is SOCAR’s trading arm.

"British" with a Turkish passport

So, Adnan Ahmedzadeh has been kept in the pre-trial detention center of the State Security Service of Azerbaijan for almost six months, and his partner in Maltese affairs, Azim Novruzov, has calmed down. And he sits quietly in London, communicating with journalists through his lawyers.

ENVIROINVEST LTD - LONDON

The media have already characterized Azim Novruzov as a specialist in money laundering and the creation of financial schemes. It uses bank accounts in Turkey and other jurisdictions to conduct illegal transactions. Azim Novruzov has a Turkish passport.

Let us recall that in the recent past, Mr. Novruzov worked in London as director of ENVIROINVEST.

ENVIROINVEST LTD - LONDON

But Novruzov himself positions himself as a businessman with a financial education and twenty years of experience in energy markets. He is a registered shareholder of Sumato Energy FZE.

 Sumato Energy Group Ltd ‒ is a company that appeared in the late 2000s as one of the buyers of Azerbaijani oil (Azeri Light brand) through the ports of Ceyhan and Supsa.

The company was mentioned in OCCRP and ICIJ investigations in the context of transactions involving SOCAR.

https://www.sgpbusiness.com/company/Sumato-Energy-Pte-Ltd

Anar Aliyev

And Novruzov is also listed as the contact person of another company, which previously belonged to former Labor Minister Anar Aliyev, and Mr. Aliyev, in turn, is also closely connected with the oil company SOCAR and with Azim Novruzov. And Anar Aliyev even got into a scandal because of this connection several years ago.

 48 companies and a law firm in Moscow

The scandal was related to the fact that SOCAR distributed contracts for oil production work before its sale between several companies. No tenders were held in the distribution of these orders. And it was unclear on what basis SOCAR selected contractors. One of those who was involved in a large number of contractors who received orders from the state-owned company was Anar Aliyev. He was immediately associated with 48 companies with which SOCAR entered into contracts.

Anar Aliyev earned more than $100 million from one of them alone, ‒ Socar Trading SA ‒. And a loud scandal broke out in Azerbaijan...

 But he quickly faded away: after all, the media call this Aliyev the cousin of the president of SOCAR, Rovnag Ibragim oglu Abdullayev.

President of SOCAR Rovnag Abdullaev

SOCAR Trading, headquartered in Geneva, was created at the end of 2007 by the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan with the co-founding of Valery Golovushkin (founder of Lukoil Trading in Geneva) and Anar Aliyev.

SOCAR Trading sold the bulk of SOCAR’s crude oil export volumes from the port of Ceyhan, and traded oil and petroleum products from other companies (countries).

As it turned out, Anar Aliyev also owned a law firm in Moscow for a long time. Anar Aliyev was listed both as the founder and as the director of the Moscow Law Agency.

The law firm was incorporated in August 2004.

I wonder for what purposes?

LLC "Moscow Legal Agency", Moscow, TIN 7707526016, OGRN 1047796645346 and other company details, address, official website, telephone — Kontur.Focus

In addition to Anar Aliyev, a certain Fakhraddin Ismailov was also indicated as the director of the company. The company’s shareholder was the offshore company Gulf Geofizik FZC, and its shareholder was a certain Middle East Geophysics Corp.

The creation of SOCAR Trading has significantly increased the efficiency of crude oil exports to international markets. And, starting in 2010, SOCAR Trading annually acquires 70 million barrels of oil of Turkmen, Kazakh, and Russian origin. And he sells it in the markets.

It turns out that they started more than 15 years ago?

Rendezvous with Igor Sechin

By the way, the former top manager of SOCAR, Akhmedzade (in addition to his dark Maltese affairs together with Novruzov), is today accused of mixing Azeri Light oil with other types of crude oil, which damaged the reputation of the Azerbaijani oil industry. Azeri Light oil is transported via the Baku-Ceyhan pipeline to Italy and Romania.

Adnan Ahmedzade with friend – footballer Lionel Messi

Apparently, the punishment will be very severe.

Ahmedzadeh still had Caspian Logistics Solutions (CLS).