SOCAR canceled refinery construction in Turkey

OCAR canceled refinery construction in Turkey

Baku, Fineko/abc.az. State Oil Company of Azerbaijan (SOCAR) has reconsidered terms of construction start of new oil-refinery in Aliaga region(Izmir,Turkey) for the needs of Petkim Holding.

SOCAR President Rovnag Abdullayev has stated that refinery construction will start in October 2011. As early as in June he told of the refinery’s fundament laying in September.

At that the refinery capacity has not changed (10 million tons a year) and the cost of project is estimated at в $5 bn. According to R. Abdullayev the construction will finish in 2015.

Austrian OMV which recently became main owner of Turkey’s largest gas station network, Petrol Ofisi, has already expressed interest for purchase of oil products from the refinery.

This refinery in Aliaga will enable SOCAR to enter with its petroleum products in the markets of Romania, Turkey and the Mediterranean countries.

Earlier joint venture SOCAR-Turcas got from EPDK (Turkish energy market regulator) a license for construction of the refinery.

The enterprise will process 214,000 barrels of oil per day. Due to it, Petkim will expand activity and import of chemical production in Turkey will drop by 30%.

Earlier, Kenan Yavuz, executive director of SOCAR-Turcas (owns 51% of Petkim’s shares), said that with new Aegean refinery’s capacity of 10 million tons of oil a year it would be possible to create about 1,000 jobs and its construction would involve 7,000-10,000 people.

EPDK head Hasan Koktas emphasized that for the first time the Company applied for licensing in December 2008, and the license was granted on the basis of comprehensive analysis.

via Azerbaijan Business Center – SOCAR canceled refinery construction in Turkey.