Azerbaijan increasing methanol export

By Trend

In recent years, there has been quite steady increase in exports of methanol in Azerbaijan, said Maksim Belousov, leading specialist in the asset portfolio management at Uralchem OJSC.

He made the remarks at 4th SOCAR International Caspian and Central Asia Downstream Forum on Trading, Logistics, Refining and Petrochemicals in Baku, Trend reports April 23.

Belousov noted that Azerbaijan annually produces 250-300,000 tons of methanol, adding that Turkey, Italy, Romania and Slovenia are Azerbaijan’s biggest partners in the trade in methanol.

He said that methanol is also used in Azerbaijan’s gas sector.

“A great share of methanol is used in the domestic market to combat hydrate formation,” he said. “The estimated volumes of methanol used in this direction are 15-20,000 tons per year.”

He added that among the CIS countries, in addition to Azerbaijan, methanol is produced in Russia, Uzbekistan, Belarus and Ukraine.

“There is a lot of competition in the region,” he said. “There are 25 methanol producers with a total production capacity of 250 million tons of methanol per year.”

The expert also stressed that until 2025, the average annual growth of methanol production in the world will be about 5.5 percent.

The company SOCAR Methanol is engaged in the production of methanol in Azerbaijan. The production capacity of the plant is 650-700,000 tons of products per year.

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