Azernews.Az

Socar-Turcas, a Turkish-Azerbaijani joint venture controlled by Azerbaijan’s state energy firm Socar, has been renamed into Socar Turkey Energy, according to the company’s website.

As reported earlier, an agreement was signed December 28 on Socar’s purchase of Turcas’ 25 percent stake in Socar-Turcas for $44 million. The transaction brought the Azerbaijani energy company’s stake in the JV to 99.98 percent.

Socar’s purchase of a further 25 percent stake raises the company’s capital in the JV 13-fold to $1.3 billion, says a statement posted on the website.

Socar Turkey Energy’s total investments under the ongoing projects exceed $7 billion.

The company’s investments in the project on building the Star oil refinery have been on the rise and have reached more than $100 million. In the second half of 2012, the tender announced for the construction work is to be completed. Overall investments in the project will be $5 billion.

The statement also says Socar Turkey Energy plans to build a seaport and a power plant in the area of Petkim, Turkey’s largest petrochemicals complex. An estimated $1 billion is to be invested in the projects. 51 percent of Petkim’s stock is held by Socar Turkey Energy.

In July 2011 Socar announced it was increasing its share in Socar-Turcas to 74.98 percent by acquiring a 23.98 percent stake from Aksoy Holding. Turcas’ share in the JV then was 25 percent, and the remaining 0.02 percent was retained by Aksoy Holding.

Socar Turkey Energy was established in late 2006 to implement investment projects in the oil refining and petrochemicals sectors and to sell natural gas in Turkey.