SUMGAYIT, Azerbaijan, September 16. Products from SOCAR's Azerkimya Production Union (PU) are exported to various countries, Trend's correspondent reports from the event.
This was announced during a media tour of SOCAR's Ethylene-Polyethylene Plant, held as part of the "September 20 – Oil Workers' Day".
The information noted that products manufactured at the plant are primarily exported to Türkiye, Estonia, and China. According to the information, European countries are the main target for exports, although the demands of the Turkish market are met first.
During the media tour, it was also highlighted that products manufactured at the plant are supplied to Central Asian countries.
In accordance with the "State Program on Industrial Development in Azerbaijan for 2015–2020," approved by the decree of the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan dated December 26, 2014, modernization work began in 2016 on the EP-300 unit at the Ethylene-Polyethylene Plant of Azerikimya PU. One of the primary objectives of the modernization project was to ensure a stable supply of ethylene, propylene, pure hydrogen, and energy carriers, meeting specific quality and quantity standards—to the new polypropylene and high-density polyethylene production facilities constructed within the framework of the SOCAR-Polymer project at the Sumgayit Chemical Industrial Park.
The raw materials used for production at Azerikimya PU are supplied directly from SOCAR’s Heydar Aliyev Oil Refinery. Thus, the Ethylene-Polyethylene Plant of the Azerikimya PU in Sumgayit is situated at the heart of SOCAR’s value chain and constitutes one of the key and most important links in the chain extending from crude oil extraction to polymer production.
Within the framework of the project, the plant's facilities and equipment across various service areas (such as I&C, electrical, mechanical, and process systems) were commissioned in stages, resulting in an increase in the average daily raw material processing volume to 2,500 tons. Actual production volumes for the plant's primary and other products have risen; daily output of key products has reached 630 tons for ethylene and 550 tons for propylene.
New facilities commissioned under the project include warehouses, a hydrogen enrichment unit, propane-propylene fraction units, four new pyrolysis furnaces, the M-4 turbocompressor, reactors for the selective hydrogenation of ethane-ethylene and propane-propylene fractions, a column for removing ethylene from the methane-hydrogen fraction, a system for removing carbon monoxide from hydrogen in the cold section, and various types of pumps (high-speed, enclosed, and special mechanical seal systems). Functional testing of DCS and ESD systems and field instrumentation was carried out; during the major overhaul in September–October 2020, the newly constructed units and equipment were integrated into the existing EP-300 unit, and the plant commenced high-capacity operations.
Following the modernization and reconstruction works, the actual production volumes of key products at Azerikimya PU have doubled overall—and tripled for certain products, thereby ensuring a stable supply of the necessary quantities of ethylene, propylene, pure hydrogen, and energy carriers to the SOCAR Polymer complex plants.
