SOCAR Turkey signs Star refinery construction agreement

On May 20, Socar Turkey Company, a subsidiary of the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan (SOCAR) signed an agreement with the consortium that is going to build the Star refinery in Turkey worth $4 billion, Petkim petrochemical complex for which the refinery is planned to be constructed told Trend.

From the Socar Turkey side the agreement was signed by the Petkin chairman Vagif Aliyev.

The consortium which won the tender for the construction of the Star refinery consists of the following companies: Spanish Tecnicas Reunidas, Italian Saipem, South Korean GS Engineering & Construction and Japan's Itochu.

As Yavuz noted previously, Star refinery's processing capacity will equal 10 million tons of oil and capable of processing such oil grades as Azeri Light, Kirkuk and Urals. Annual production at the refinery will equal 1.6 million tons of naphtha which will reduce Petkim's dependence on imports of this type of oil product to zero, he said.

According to Yavuz, along with naphtha, the Star refinery will also produce 5.9 million tons of diesel fuel with ultra-low sulphur, 500 tons of aviation fuel, 630,000 tons of petroleum coke, 240,000 tons of liquefied petroleum gas, 415,000 tons of mixed xylenes, 75,000 tons of olefin liquefied petroleum gas and 145,000 tons of sulphur.

Construction of the refinery will be financed in part by the shareholders' assets (30 per cent) which will amount to about $1.8 billion and the rest through bank loans.

The total capacity of the refinery Star will comprise 10 million tons and petroleum products manufactured at the plant will be aimed at meeting the needs of the Petkim chemical concern and the domestic market of Turkey.

Adapted from Worldbulletin