SOCAR: No need to import Star refinery's products
By Aynur Karimova
Azerbaijan does not need to import oil products from the Star refinery, which is under construction on the Petkim peninsula in the Aliagha region of Turkey’s Izmir.
This was noted by Vagif Aliyev, the Head of the Investment Department of Azerbaijan's state energy company SOCAR, in an interview with local TV channel last week.
"Taking into account the production and transport costs, the cost of the products produced in the Aegean region will be high when importing them to the Azerbaijani market. Therefore, SOCAR does not consider the issue of importing the products of the Star refinery to the country," he noted.
SOCAR implements the project on upgrading the Baku oil refinery named after Heydar Aliyev to meet the demand in the Azerbaijani market.
"Thanks to the implementation of this project, the country's demand in the gasoline of Euro-5 standard will be fully met," Aliyev added.
Once completed, the Star refinery will be the first refinery to start operations in Turkey since 1972. This refinery will process an estimated 10 million tons of crude oil per year and is expected to dramatically reduce Turkey’s dependence on foreign energy imports.
Star refinery will be capable of refining Azeri Light, Kirkuk, and Urals oil grades. The refinery is mostly intended to create a resource base for Petkim Holding. The annual naphtha production volume used by Petkim as the main raw material, will hit 1.66 million metric tons at the Star refinery.
Azerbaijan is keen on developing domestic oil processing facilities. In this regard, the government has announced the construction of the Oil and Gas Processing Complex and modernization of Baku oil refinery.
The OGPC project has multiple interfaces not only between process units, utilities, and offsite facilities, but also between the new gas processing and petrochemical facilities. The project costs about $17.1 billion plus interest for the loans to be received during construction.
The OGPC will be constructed roughly 60 kilometers away from Baku. It will consist of three processing plants and a thermal power plant. The project will be completed in late 2022 - early 2023.
The OGPC construction project will improve product quality, enhance the export potential of the country, and help protect the environment of the capital.
The annual capacity of the OGPC refinery will be 8.5-9 million metric tons, the gas processing plant will be 12 billion cubic meters, and petrochemical production will exceed 1 million metric tons.
Modernization of the Baku Oil Refinery named after Heydar Aliyev will be completed by the end of 2018. The refinery processing capacity will increase from 6 to 7.5 million tons per year after reconstruction. The cost of modernization is estimated at $1 billion.
SOCAR announced about the elimination of Azneftyag refinery and merging it with the Heydar Aliyev Baku Oil Refinery in January 2015.
This decision was taken as part of the work to improve and optimize SOCAR’s structure.
Azerbaijan's energy giant 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.
SOCAR includes Azneft (companies producing oil and gas offshore and onshore), Azerkimya (chemical industry) and Azerigas production associations.
Three production divisions, two oil refineries and one gas processing plant, an oil tanker fleet, a deep water platform fabrication yard, two trusts, one institution, and 22 subdivisions are operating as corporate entities under SOCAR.
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Aynur Karimova is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Aynur_Karimova
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