Carbamide plant construction to end in 2016: SOCAR
By Aynur Jafarova
The construction of a carbamide plant will be completed in Azerbaijan in 2016, head of the state energy company SOCAR's Azerkimya chemicals producer, Mukhtar Babayev, told Trend news agency on September 18.
According to him, the general contractor of the project is South Korea's Samsung Engineering Co., Ltd. At this stage, the company jointly with some licensors producing ammonia and carbamide is preparing documentation which includes the basic requirements for the project and a description of the technological process, as well as technological schemes and additional systems required for carbamide production.
The areas designated for the plant construction are being prepared, Babayev said.
Approximately 40-45 percent of the plant's products are expected to be sold in the domestic market, which will fully meet the demand for nitrogen fertilizers in the country, he said, adding that the rest of the 400,000 tons per year volume will be exported.
The new plant will be located in Azerkimya production association's industrial site in Sumgayit, a city some 30 km north of the capital Baku. The designed annual capacity of the plant will be about 600,000 tons of carbamide (2,000 tons per day) and 1,200 tons of ammonia per day.
Around 500 million euros (excluding taxes) will be allocated from the state budget to build the plant.
SOCAR plans to begin constructing a similar plant in neighboring Georgia as well.
Polypropylene and polyethylene plants
Babayev also said the active phase of the construction of plants producing polypropylene and polyethylene at low pressure will begin in 2014.
According to him, in 2012 SOCAR signed a contract on the construction of a plant for the production of polypropylene and high density polyethylene with annual capacity of 200,000 and 100,000 tons respectively.
"The construction of these facilities is planned in the Sumgayit Chemical Technology Park," he said.
The Azerkimya head said that under a relevant contract the basic project has been developed, equipment ordered and a large amount of technical work carried out. Furthermore, negotiations with licensors have been held and an agreement on providing technical support reached.
Currently, work is underway on detailed design and selection of contractors for the construction operations and other technical services and at the construction site on dismantling and demolition of the existing engineering structures and communications, along with geological and exploration work on the site of planned structures.
"SOCAR Polimer enterprise has been established for the implementation of these projects. Part of the equipment of the facility will be delivered to the construction site by the end of this year," Babayev said.
Babayev said polypropylene products and high density polyethylene are widely used in such fields as agriculture, medicine, the chemical and engineering industries, construction, electrical engineering, electronics and manufacturing of household goods.
According to him, production of these chemical products will give an impetus and create suitable conditions to establish new production facilities on the basis of Sumgayit Chemical Technology Park.
Babayev also said the Ethylene-Polyethylene plant, which is the main enterprise of Azerkimya, processed 198,000 tons of raw materials from January to August this year. During this period, production of the main products increased following a partial transition from liquid raw materials to gas. The use of the gas fraction obtained as a result of oil processing at the Heydar Aliyev refinery as a raw material at the chemical enterprises is stipulated by high efficiency in the production of monomers for polyolefin.
"Since around 46.9 percent of processed raw materials accounted for light gasoline fractions and stable natural gasolene, 34.4 percent to butane-propane and 18.7 percent to stripped gas, the output of the main base product was 42.2 percent," he said.
Babayev also said that Azerkimya has shipped eight tankers with the butane-butylene fraction from SOCAR's Black Sea oil terminal in Kulevi from December 2012 until now.
Three tankers with propylene were shipped from the terminal in Georgia during this period, he said.
"Around 2,700 to 3,000 tons of propylene were transshipped in each tanker batch," he added.
Up to five tankers with the butane-butylene fraction and up to three tankers with propylene are to be shipped through the Kulevi terminal by the end of 2013.
"The volumes of shipments in this direction will mainly depend on the demand for these products in the European market," he added.
Chemical product transportation through SOCAR's Kulevi oil terminal was possible due to a new propylene transportation complex at the oil terminal in Kulevi. The project of the new complex was prepared by the Neftgazelmitedgigatlayihe Institute.