Azernews.Az

By Aynur Jafarova

Azerbaijan's state energy company SOCAR and British BP held a meeting on the joint project of building a waste recycling and management center.

The two companies studied international experiences and optimal technologies and their subsequent installation within the project, a source in SOCAR told Baku-based Trend news agency on November 7.

The new center, which will be built in the Garadagh district of Baku, will process mainly oil sludge, drill cuttings, and formation waters.

The cost of the project is estimated at $60 million, and funding will be provided by SOCAR and BP at a 50-50 ratio.

A tender will be announced in the near future, and the construction work will begin after selecting a contractor.

The recycling center is expected to be commissioned in late 2013 or early 2014.

SOCAR's current waste management center is outdated and does not have the capacity to process all necessary types of waste. BP is also in need of such a facility.

In order to ensure that the system designed to manage wastes generated at SOCAR enterprises operates efficiently, works on waste collection, sorting, transportation, utilization, and burial are carried out in the frame of the Waste Management Plan.

According to the Plan, production waste and drilling sludge are handed over to the Waste Center of the SOCAR Environmental Department.

The landfill for the disposal of oil sludge began operating in 1985 and is currently in need of reconstruction.

In 2011, US company M-I LLC submitted a feasibility study on the construction of the recycling and waste management center for SOCAR.