New national standards set for new oil and gas complex
By Aynur Jafarova
Azerbaijan's energy giant SOCAR intends to develop new national standards for the new oil and gas refining and petrochemical production complex (OGPC).
The new standards will be developed on the basis of 1,000 international and regional standards, the Azerbaijan's State Committee on Standardization, Metrology and Patents reported on December 4.
The standards, which are planned to be used in the construction and operation of the new complex, are developed on the basis of an agreement signed between the Azerbaijan National Standardization and Certification Institute of the State Committee and SOCAR.
Under the contract, experts from the institute will explore the relevance of international and regional standards to the construction and operation of the new complex, and examine compliance with the draft standards, translated into the Azerbaijani language with the system of linguistic, orthographic, and state standards.
The implementation period for the first stage of the project is two years, and the overall duration of the project is eight years.
SOCAR members constitute of Azerbaijan's State Committee on Standardization, Metrology and Patents, and State Energy Company.
SOCAR is currently working on the OGPC in Azerbaijan. The construction of new facilities involves the dismantling of the current production enterprises, particularly oil refineries.
The Heydar Aliyev Oil Refinery will stop working after the commissioning of a refinery in the new complex, which is planned to become fully operational in 2020-21.
The OGPC is estimated to start operating in 2018 and 2021.
The construction of a new complex will cost $17 billion, including interest on bank loans. The complex consists of a petrochemical enterprise with a capacity of 1.7 million tons of finished products, an oil refinery with a capacity of 10 million tons per year, and a gas-processing plant with a capacity of 10 billion cubic meters per year.
The depth of oil processing at the plant will be about 95 percent, and the yield of light oil products will be 85 percent.
A thermal power plant with a capacity of 250 megawatts will also be built as part of the new complex.
The complex will be located 60 kilometers from Baku. Commissioning of the entire OGPC complex is scheduled for the end of 2020.
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