Azernews.Az

By Aynur Jafarova

Excavation work has been launched under the project on construction of a container port of the Petkim Petrochemical Holding in Turkey's Izmir city, Petkim's report said on Thursday.

The first phase of the port's construction will be completed in 2015 and the second phase in 2016. Some $400 million will be invested into the construction of the port.

Furthermore, some 75 percent of excavation work within the construction of a new Star oil refinery have been completed.

The Star refinery's processing capacity is expected to be 10 million tons of oil and it will be capable of refining such oil grades as Azeri Light, Kirkuk and Urals. Annual production at the refinery will equal 1.6 million tons of naphtha. STAR Refinery is scheduled for commissioning in 2015.

The container port will initially have a 1.5 million twenty-foot equivalent unit (TEU) capacity, and then the capacity of the port will be increased to four million TEU. Its capacity will exceed the capacity of Aslandzhak port by about 50 percent.

In February last year, Petkim, which is co-owned by the Azerbaijani state energy company SOCAR and Dutch company APM Terminals, signed an agreement on the construction of a container port with the capacity of 1.5 million TEU. The APM Terminals will have the right to manage the port for a period of 28 years.

Earlier SOCAR Turkey and SOCAR International DMCC OGG acquired 10.32 percent stake in Petkim, increasing their stakes to 61.32 percent. Some 38.67 percent of the shares are in the free circulation in Istanbul Stock Exchange.

Petkim Petrochemical Holding manufactures plastic packages, fabrics, PVC, detergents, and is the only Turkish producer of such products. A quarter of Petkim's products are exported to foreign markets.

Director General of Petkim Saadettin Korkut said earlier that the share of Petkim in the domestic market of Turkey will reach 40 percent by and it will become one of the largest bases on the production of energy goods in Europe.

SOCAR, which includes production associations Azerneft (companies involved in production of oil and gas onshore and offshore), Azerkimya (chemical industry enterprises), and Azeriqaz (gas distribution), is one of the world's most well-established oil companies, active in Turkey since May 30, 2008.

The volume of investments that SOCAR will invest in the projects in Turkey is estimated at $17 billion. The total amount of Azerbaijan's investments to Turkey in the coming years is estimated at $21 billion. The number of companies with Azerbaijani capital in Turkey reached 1,100 by the end of 2012.

According to the 2012 results, trade turnover between the two countries amounted to $2.12 billion. Turkey ranked first among foreign trade partners of Azerbaijan for the volume of imports ($1.520 billion) with a share of 15.75 percent in Azerbaijani imports.