Putin has played a major role in facilitating a peace accord between Azerbaijan and Armenia, hosting a meeting last November between Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan.

Ukraine is one of the top three buyers of oil from Azerbaijan. The country imported about 337,000 tonnes of crude from Azerbaijan for $196 million in January 2022.

The field has been developed by Azerbaijan's state energy firm SOCAR and France's TotalEnergies (formerly known as TOTAL) since 2016.

The country reduced oil exports by 12.7 percent year-on-year to 3.5 million tonnes and increased exports of natural gas by 44 percent to 1.613 billion cubic metres.