Azerbaijan's polypropylene plant to be commissioned in 2016
By Aynur Jafarova
Azerbaijan's polypropylene plant will be commissioned in the third-fourth quarter of 2016, Head of the Azerkimya Production Association of Azerbaijan's state energy company SOCAR Mukhtar Babayev told Trend Agency.
The plant will be constructed in Sumgayit Chemical Technology Park, and SOCAR Polimer takes part in the construction project.
Touching on the construction of the plant for the production of
low pressure polyethylene, Babayev said this facility will be
commissioned after launching the polypropylene plant.
"Technical works on the establishment of these facilities have
already started. Part of the equipment has already been delivered,
and currently, their inspection and testing is underway, large part
of equipment was ordered, and logistical issues are being resolved.
Earthworks have already been started," Babayev added.
The SOCAR Polimer enterprise with authorized capital of $51 million
has been established for the implementation of these projects. The
state energy company plans to keep its share in the project at 51
percent and the rest will be offered to privately owned
companies.
Babayev went on to add that the construction of a carbamide plant will be completed in Azerbaijan in late 2016-early 2017.
He noted the construction works will be completed in the fourth
quarter of 2016, and the rest will take commissioning and personnel
training.
Touching on SOCAR's plans to construct a similar plant in
neighboring Georgia, Babayev said currently, this project is under
development.
Earlier it was reported that the facility in Georgia will be similar to the facility to be constructed in Azerbaijan for its parameters.
However, Babaev said, some adjustments were made to this project, and currently, related works are underway over it.
Babaev said if it was previously assumed that all the ammonia
will be processed into carbamide at this plant, now other options
are being considered as well, in particular selling ammonia as a
product.
The general contractor of the project is South Korea's Samsung
Engineering Co., Ltd.
Approximately 40-45 percent of the plant's products are expected to be sold in the domestic market, which will fully meet the demand for nitrogen fertilizers in the country. The rest of the 400,000 tons per year volume will be exported.
The new plant will be located in Azerkimya production association's industrial site in Sumgayit. The designed annual capacity of the plant will be about 600,000 tons of carbamide (2,000 tons per day) and 1,200 tons of ammonia per day.
Around 500 million euros (excluding taxes) will be allocated
from the state budget to build the plant.
SOCAR, which is keen on expanding operations in the retail oil
products market abroad, is involved in exploring oil and gas
fields, producing, processing, and transporting oil, gas, and gas
condensate, marketing petroleum and petrochemical products in the
domestic and international markets, and supplying natural gas to
industry and the public in Azerbaijan.