Baku, Azerbaijan, Oct.30
By Emil Ismayilov - Trend:
Construction of the Star refinery of SOCAR (State Oil Company of Azerbaijan) in Turkey will be finished in spring of 2018, a senior representative of SOCAR told Trend Oct.30.
"We plan to complete the construction of a refinery in Turkey in March 2018," said the representative of SOCAR.
Regarding the changes in the personnel of shareholders of a new refinery, SOCAR representative said that the Star is a very interesting asset in terms of long-term investment, so a variety of investors show interest for it.
"There are no changes in the personnel of the shareholders of the enterprise at this stage," a senior representative of SOCAR said.
Earlier, the president of SOCAR Turkey Enerji (Turkish unit of the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan) Kenan Yavuz said that the company is considering the possibility of entering of a new partner into the shareholding structure of the Star refinery.
At present, the sharing arrangement in the project is as follows: 60 percent share in the Star refinery is owned by Rafineri Holding A.S. (100 percent owned by SOCAR Turkey Enerji A.S), which earlier bought all the 18.5 percent share of Turcas Petrol and 40 percent is owned by SOCAR.
The total cost of the project on the construction of SOCAR's refinery in Turkey exceeds $5 billion.
The annual production of naphtha at the Star factory, used by Petkim petrochemical complex, in which SOCAR has equity participation, will account to 1.66 million metric tons as the main raw material. Currently, more than 80 percent of the needs of Petkim in the naphtha are provided by imports, and with the introduction of a new refinery the dependence on imports will be reduced to zero.
Petkim Petrokimya Holding manufactures plastic packages, fabric, PVC and detergents. It is the only Turkish producer making such products, a quarter of which is exported by the company.
SOCAR and a consortium of Tecnicas Reunidas SA, Saipem SpA, GS Engineering & Construction Corp and Itochu companies signed an EPC- contract (Engineering, procurement and construction) in May 2013, to construct the Star refinery.
In October 2013 the Turkish city of Izmir hosted a ceremony of laying the foundation of a new refinery.
The plant plans to reprocess such types of crude oil, as Azeri Light, Kerkuk and Urals.
Along with naphtha, the new oil refinery will produce diesel fuel with ultra-low sulfur to the amount of 5.95 million metric tons, aviation kerosene - 500,000 metric tons, reformate - 500,000 metric tons, petroleum coke - 630,000 metric tons, liquefied gas - 240,000 metric tons, mixed xylene - 415,000 metric tons, olefin LPG - 75,000 metric tons and 145,000 metric tons of sulfur.
The refinery will not produce petrol and fuel oil.
