Baku, Azerbaijan, May 1
By Aygun Badalova, Rufiz Hafizoglu - Trend:
"Value-Site-2023" project of the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan on Petkim peninsula will assist the development of Petkim's Aliaga site into a world-scale hub, head of SOCAR Turkey Energy, Kenan Yavuz, said in an interview with Trend.
Petkim container terminal and STAR refinery are the most important projects of "Value-Site", said Yavuz, head of SOCAR Turkey Energy, board member of Petkim petrochemical holding.
"Our container terminal project will be the biggest integrated port of the Aegean region and third in Turkey," he said, adding that Petkim port will compete with Greek Piraeus port.
He said that the first phase of the project will be completed within 2015 and it is planned to make opening ceremony for the port in September 2015.
Petkim petrochemical complex and Dutch APM Terminals signed an agreement in March 2013 for construction of a container terminal with the capacity of 1.5 million TEU (twenty-foot equivalent unit).
APM Terminals will have the right to manage the port for 28 years.
The new port's capacity will be around 50 percent more than that of Alsancak port. However, depending on the market demand, it is planned to increase the new port's capacity to 3 million TEU in the future.
The construction of STAR refinery with 10 million metric tons of capacity is the fundamental step in the sphere of integration and the largest finance project in Turkish history, according to Yavuz.
He added that the STAR refinery will reduce the import of diesel, jet fuel and LPG and will decrease Turkey's account deficit by $2.5 billion.
It is planned to commission the refinery in Q1 of 2018.
The annual naphtha production volume, used by Petkim as the main raw material, will hit 1.66 million metric tons at the STAR refinery.
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.
It is planned to refine Azeri Light, Kerkuk and URALS oil at the plant.
Yavuz added that following the implementation of the projects in Petkim, 17,000 temporary jobs will be created during the construction and around 2,500 people will be permanently employed.
Edited by SI
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Follow the authors on Twitter: @AygunBadalova, @rhafizoglu
