Azernews.Az

By Aynur Jafarova

The implementation of large oil and gas projects in Azerbaijan requires the training of qualified specialists, head of Azerbaijan's state energy company SOCAR, Rovnag Abdullayev, said on February 11.

He made the statement at the ceremony of signing memorandums on strengthening social protection of the working population.

The first document of Azerbaijan's Ministry of Labor and Social Protection of Population was signed with National Confederation of Entrepreneurs, and the second with SOCAR.

Speaking at the event, Abdullayev said only the construction works for the implementation of the second stage of development of giant Shah Deniz gas condensate field in the Azerbaijani sector of the Caspian Sea require about 10,000 specialists.

"This project stipulates an investment to the amount of $8 billion, and half of work will be conducted in Azerbaijan," SOCAR head said.

Abdullayev believes that high demand for qualified specialists will be in peak in 2017-2019, the years of implementation of the project.

Qualified personnel is also needed in the implementation of other projects in Azerbaijan, in particular, for the construction of carbamide plant, chemical technopark, new complex for oil and gas processing and production of petrochemical goods, he added.

Gas price in local market to remain unchanged

Later, Abdullayev told journalists that SOCAR hasn't appealed to Azerbaijan's Tariff (Price) Council with a proposal to increase the price of natural gas in the domestic market.

In December 2013, the Tariff Council increased tariff for wholesale of natural gas from 42 manats to 80 manats per 1,000 cubic meters. Retail price of gas is 100 manats per 1,000 cubic meters.

SOCAR will fully switch to A-92 gasoline production

Abdullayev also said SOCAR has appealed to the government with a proposal to suspend the production of AI-95 gasoline and fully switch to the production of A-92 gasoline.

He said the AI-95 gasoline is supposed to be imported while AI-98 gasoline is already being imported into the country from abroad.

These measures are supposed to meet the growing demand for gasoline in Azerbaijan, he added.

Currently, the capacities of oil refineries in Azerbaijan no longer cope with the growing volume of gasoline consumption in the country. That is why SOCAR appealed to the government with a proposal to conduct a full transition to the production of AI-92 gasoline. AI-95 and AI-98 gasoline will be imported by companies engaged in retail sales of gasoline in the country.

The SOCAR head also noted in the next few years, the company will work to increase the gasoline production capacity at its oil refineries in order to meet the country's needs before 2023-2025, that is, by the time of full commissioning of a new complex for oil and gas processing and production of petrochemicals.

Abdullayev stressed SOCAR is also working on bringing the produced fuel to the Euro-4 emissions standards.

Earlier by a decision of the Azerbaijani government, dated January 21, 2013, the imports of gasoline with 95 and 92 octane rating was exempted from customs duty and excise tax until June 2014, which was not due to the gasoline shortages in the country, but because of plans on suspending the catalytic cracking unit at the oil refinery named after Heydar Aliyev.

Duty rate was reduced from 15 percent to zero, and the excise duty rate on imports of these gasoline brands was reduced from $250 to $1 per ton.

The unit's work is planned to be stopped in April for a month for reconstruction and to conduct work on increasing its capacity, which will affect the production of gasoline in the country. This may require a replacement of these volumes.

During the period of suspension of the catalytic cracking unit's work, the imports into the country and distribution of gasoline with an octane rating of 95 and 92 will be provided directly by SOCAR.

Modernization of the unit will make it possible to increase its processing capacity by one million tons (from two tons to three million tons), and gasoline production - by 450,000 tons.

The need to increase the unit's capacity is associated with the rising demand for gasoline in the domestic market.

The oil products are produced at two Baku oil refineries. Both oil refineries belong to SOCAR, which annually processes approximately seven million tons of oil extracted onshore and offshore with its own funds.

The price of oil products in Azerbaijan are fixed and determined by the Tariff Council. The retail price of gasoline increased in Azerbaijan in line with the council's decision, dated December 3, 2013.

The retail price for a liter of AI-95 gasoline is set at 0.8 manats, and the retail price of AI-92 and AI-80 gasoline - at 0.7 manats per liter. Prior to this, the cost of one liter of AI-95 gasoline was 0.6 manats, AI-92 and AI-80 - 0.55 manats.

The last time fuel prices changed in Azerbaijan was in 2007.