Azernews.Az

By Amina Nazarli

The construction of Star oil refinery plant owned by the Azerbaijani state oil company SOCAR in Turkey required $3.9 billion so far.

Turkish media quoted General Director of the plant Ibrahim Palaz on November 28.

The total cost of the project is $5.7 billion, according to him.

"Some $3.3 billion of the total amount is financed by 23 banks. The loan agreement was concluded in a timely manner and on favorable terms, otherwise now a loan would have been 1.5 percent more expensive, which would mean an additional cost of $ 450 million. The project does not need additional financing," he said.

Palaz noted that construction work at the refinery is underway on schedule.

"Currently, the project is executed by 78.3 percent. Engineering work was carried out at 99.5 percent, the purchase by 95.5 percent and construction by 57.5 percent. The plant will be launched as planned, in April 2018," said Palaz.

The annual naphtha production volume, used by Petkim as the main raw material, will amount to 1.66 million 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 tons, aviation kerosene - 500,000 tons, reformate - 500,000 tons, petroleum coke - 630,000 tons, liquefied gas - 240,000 tons, mixed xylene - 415,000 tons, olefin LPG - 75,000 tons and 145,000 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.

At present, the share distribution in the project is as follows: 60 percent is owned by Rafineri Holding A.Ş. (100 percent owned by SOCAR Turkey Enerji A.Ş.), which had previously acquired all the remaining 18.5 percent share of Turcas Petrol in the project, and 40 percent belongs to SOCAR.

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Amina Nazarli is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @amina_nazarli

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