Southern Gas Corridor receives Baa3 rating from Moody's

Moody's Ratings has assigned a Baa3 long‑term issuer rating and a baa3 Baseline Credit Assessment (BCA) to Southern Gas Corridor CJSC (SGC), Azerbaijan's state‑owned company that produces, sells and transports natural gas to Europe. The rating outlook is positive and is aligned with Azerbaijan's sovereign rating, reflecting SGC's strategic role in flagship projects such as the Shah Deniz field and the South Caucasus, Trans‑Anatolian and Trans‑Adriatic pipelines.

The agency notes that the Azerbaijani government guarantees all of SGC’s outstanding debt, and that the company’s ownership structure—49% held by the Ministry of Economy on behalf of the state and 51% by SOCAR—makes it a government‑related issuer. Moody's highlights SGC’s strong profitability, driven largely by high‑margin midstream operations, and stresses that any improvement in the country’s sovereign rating would directly benefit the company’s rating.

In a separate statement, SGC emphasized that its BCA is among the highest ever issued in the CIS region, underscoring the firm’s financial stability and reliability in international capital markets.