Azernews.Az

Azerbaijan`s state oil company Socar has said it is seeking to purchase the Swiss oil refinery Petroplus.

Socar head Rovnag Abdullayev told journalists that his company was studying the potential and condition of the facility.

``The owners of the refinery have declared themselves bankrupt. At present we are studying its condition, and if the profitability of the refinery is at the desired level, Socar may intensify its work in this direction,`` Abdullayev said.

Swiss refining company Petroplus Holdings AG made a decision to declare itself bankrupt due to the failure of talks with banks about unfreezing a credit line worth $1 billion. As a result, financial institutions demanded that the company pay off its loans amounting to about $1.75 billion.

The Petroplus head office and one of its plants are located in Switzerland, while four other oil refining complexes are in Britain, France, Germany and Belgium.

Total company production capacity is about 667,000 barrels of oil per day.