SOCAR to construct oil spills management center
By Mushvig Mehdiyev
Azerbaijan's state energy company SOCAR will finish the construction of a modern center for the utilization and management of the oil spills in 2014.
SOCAR's Vice-president Rafig Huseynzade announced about this during an international conference called "Green economy, energy effectiveness and environment."
Huseynzade said the construction of the center, located in Baku's Garadagh district, is being carried out jointly with the BP. "Construction of the center's building started this summer and it will be completed within this year," he added.
Prevention of oil spills and fight against such problems during exploration of oil and gas fields, production, processing and transportation of oil are among the main priorities of the company. Azerbaijan attaches great importance to the security of the littoral states in the Caspian Sea, since it acts as a transit route for exporting oil products. Meanwhile, new wells are put into operation in the sea.
"The center will be supplied with modern equipment. The oil and drilling tailings, as well as the wastewater from both offshore and onshore oilfields and other wastes accumulated after the activities of oil and gas industries will undergo utilization process at the center," Huseynzade said.
The waste storage existing since 1958 has become useless for keeping oil wastes, so, there is a necessity of building a state of the art center for the management of oil spills.
The United States Trade and Development Agency has granted about $572,068 to Azerbaijan for the preparation of project's feasibility study.
The preliminary cost of the project is calculated at $60 million.
SOCAR established a working group to manage processes on sending warnings about spills of oil and oil products and their elimination under the company's Emergency Situations Commission last year. Azerbaijan's Emergency Situations Ministry is also involved in preventing any kind of emergency situations at sea. Elimination of accidents linked to oil spills or fires and other emergencies at sea is among the Ministry's main responsibilities.