Azernews.Az

By Aynur Jafarova

Production of polypropylene and polyethylene of high density in Sumgayit -- an industrial city located close to the Azerbaijani capital Baku -- will be launched in 2016, a source at the state energy company SOCAR told Trend news agency.

According to the source, the construction of two new plants for production of such polypropylene and polyethylene will be completed in 2015.

In 2012 SOCAR signed a contract on the construction of a plant producing high-density polypropylene and 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.

The SOCAR Polimer enterprise with authorized capital of $51 million has been established for the implementation of these projects.

The state energy company plans to keep its share in the project at 51 percent and the rest will be offered to privately owned companies.

According to the source, work is currently underway to attract shareholders, and the process of financing the construction of new facilities will be carried out on the basis of participating interest.

SOCAR Vice President Suleyman Gasimov said earlier that SOCAR intends to attract up to $200 million from local banks as part of the effort to launch polymer production in Azerbaijan. The total volume of anticipated investment in SOCAR Polimer amounts to $500 million.

According to him, nearly 30 percent of investments in the project will be attracted from shareholders and a large part is to be drawn from banks and through issuing long-term nominal bonds which will be placed in the domestic market.

The source said SOCAR will continue the modernization process of Azerkimya chemicals producer in 2014-2016. A slight modernization is to be carried out at Azerkimya in 2014, 2015 and in 2016 in order to facilitate processing, it said.

Currently, SOCAR continues work on the construction of a new oil, gas and petrochemical complex (OGPC) in Azerbaijan. The construction of new facilities involves the dismantling of the current production enterprises, in particular, oil refineries.

According to the source, Azerkimya will work as long as the Heydar Aliyev Oil Refinery is operating; raw materials from there are delivered to the production facilities of Azerkimya. However, a more specific decision to halt the Production Association's operation can be expected only with a situation which will emerge with the commissioning of the new processing complex.

The Heydar Aliyev Oil Refinery is to stop working after the commissioning of a refinery in the new complex, which is planned to become fully operational in 2020-2021.

The OGPC will be put into operation by stages between 2018 and 2021.

The construction of a new complex worth $17 billion including interest on bank loans entails the construction of a petrochemical enterprise with a capacity of 1.7 million tons of finished products, an oil refinery with a capacity of 10 million tons per year as well as a gas processing plant with a capacity of 10 billion cubic meters per year. The depth of oil processing at the plant will be about 95 percent and the yield of light oil products 85 percent.

A thermal power plant with a capacity of 250 megawatts will be built as part of the new complex.

The complex will be located 60 kilometers from Baku. Commissioning of the entire OGPC complex is scheduled for the end of 2020.