Azernews.Az

Azerbaijan’s state energy firm Socar has submitted the project on building a new oil and gas refining and petrochemicals complex to the government, the company’s head has said.

Rovnag Abdullayev told an energy forum in Astana that engineering work will be carried out in 2012, while the first stage of the project is to be completed in 2017, with commissioning of the facility scheduled for 2020.

Under the project, an oil refinery with capacity of 10 million tons per year, a gas refinery with annual capacity of 10 billion cubic meters, and a chemicals plant will be built.

Abdullayev said Socar would also lay the foundation of a new oil refinery in neighboring Turkey in the coming months. The plant will supply raw materials for Petkim, a major Turkish petrochemicals group controlled by Socar.

Construction of the new plant will reduce imports of much-needed chemicals by 30 percent and allow Socar to access the Turkish and regional oil product markets. The project is estimated at about $5 billion. Construction operations are expected to last three years.

Abdullayev also noted that construction of a new shipyard that will build ships for Socar was launched in March 2010 in the Alat settlement outside Baku. A first vessel manufactured by the plant will be commissioned in mid-2013.

Socar currently owns over 350 ships.

According to the Socar head, the new plant will also construct 70,000 ton tankers.

"The tankers could be used to ship Kazakhstan’s oil to Azerbaijan across the Caspian Sea in the future," Abdullayev said.

He said Socar’s new projects also include construction of a carbamide plant with annual capacity of 700,000 tons in Sumgayit, an industrial city 30 km north of the capital Baku. Construction work will begin next year and is to be completed over three years.

Abdullayev said global demand for carbamide is estimated at 150 million tons in 2011.

"This figure is increasing by the year, and over the long term, our plant will be able to sell its produce not only in Azerbaijan but also in neighboring [countries’] markets," he added.