Azerbaijan is likely to halt oil deliveries to Ukraine owing to security concerns arising from the country's war.

Russia started its long-anticipated war on Ukraine, targeting key towns and important targets across a large geographic region in an operation characterised by Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin as a raid to "demilitarise and de-nazify," but not to invade its former Soviet neighbour.

"Oil exports from Baku to Odessa will most likely be temporarily halted due to the deterioration of the situation between Ukraine and the Russian Federation, as well as the threat to the security of supplies of Azerbaijani oil to Ukraine," the source, who did not want to be identified, said.

Ukraine is one of Azerbaijan's top three purchasers of oil. In January 2022, the nation acquired 337,000 tonnes of petroleum from Azerbaijan for $196 million.

Ukraine paid $373.4 million for around 850,000 tonnes of oil in 2021.

Azerbaijani oil accounts for over 80% of Ukraine's total oil purchases, with most of it going to the Kremenchuk refinery.

SOCAR, Azerbaijan's national energy company, became an export operator of Rosneft's oil products in Ukraine last year and began supplying Rosneft's diesel fuel to Ukraine. It had a quota of over 100,000 tonnes of diesel fuel and 12,000 tonnes of liquefied natural gas.

Proton Energy Group, a Swiss trader, used to deliver Rosneft diesel and liquefied petroleum gas to Ukraine, but ceased operations in April 2021.

Since 2008, SOCAR has had a presence in Ukraine. The firm first entered the Ukrainian gasoline market in 2010.

Ukraine consumes about 7 million tonnes of diesel per year and imports two-thirds of what it requires, primarily from Russia and Belarus. Following the suspension of Proton deliveries, Ukraine attempted to expand seaborne imports, but volumes were insufficient, according to Reuters.