One third of works on Star refinery construction completed
By Aynur Karimova
Some 35 percent of works on the construction of Star refinery in Turkey's Izmir city has been completed, Azertag state news agency quoted Kenan Yavuz, the head of the SOCAR Turkey Enerji, as saying.
He said that to date, some $2.1 billion was invested in the construction of the refinery.
Once completed, the Star refinery will be the first refinery to start operations in Turkey since 1972. This project will process an estimated 10 million tons of crude oil per year and is expected to dramatically reduce Turkey’s dependence on foreign energy imports.
Star refinery will be capable of refining Azeri Light, Kirkuk, and Urals oil grades. The refinery is mostly intended to create a resource base for Petkim Holding.
The annual naphtha production volume used by Petkim as the main raw material, will hit 1.66 million metric tons at the Star refinery.
Yavuz went on to add that the first stage of works on the construction of the Petlim container port, which is currently under construction.
He noted that in the coming 1-2 months, the port will be handed over to the company which will be in charge of management of the port.
Petlim container port, which is believed to become the third largest port in Turkey and the largest one in the Aegean Sea, will be able to receive the largest container ships carrying up to 11,000 containers. Some $400 million was invested in the construction of the port, some $300 million of which was invested by Petkim.
The initial capacity of the port will be 1.5 million TEU (twenty-foot equivalent unit), which will be increased to four million TEU in the future. Its capacity will exceed the capacity of Aslandzhak port by about 50 percent.
The Dutch company APM Terminals, one of the world's leading port operators, will enjoy the right to manage the port for 28 years while the port will belong to Turkey.
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Aynur Karimova is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Aynur_Karimova
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