Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb.18
By Maksim Tsurkov - Trend:
SOCAR (State Oil Company of Azerbaijan) starts work to improve the production capacity of the Baku oil refinery (refinery) named after Heydar Aliyev, a message posted Feb.17 on the website of SOCAR said.
The reconstruction of oil refineries is held due to the acceleration of measures to introduce the standard Euro-5 in Azerbaijan, according to the message.
The project implemented at the refinery named after Heydar Aliyev is aimed at upgrading process plants, increasing production capacity and improving the ecological environment.
A series of work is planned to be held on modernization of factory catalytic cracking units, according to the message.
"In particular, Italian and US companies have begun design work to increase the performance of the catalytic cracking No.21 to 7.5 million metric tons per year and more efficient use of internal heat, as well as to increase the productivity of the catalytic cracking unit No.55 to 2.5 million metric tons a year," said the message.
It is noted that special attention will be paid to the issue of ensuring supply of raw material to Azerkimya in order to bring the output of polyethylene and polypropylene production to 100,000 metric tons and 150,000 metric tons per year, respectively.
The project also envisages the construction of facilities for cleaning the equipment from sulfur compounds.
Work on the reconstruction and modernization of the Baku Oil Refinery, named after Heydar Aliyev, is scheduled to be completed by late 2018 or early 2019. The plant will continue its work for yet another 15 years, till the commissioning of a new refinery in Azerbaijan within the framework of the OGPC project in 2030.
Earlier, head of SOCAR Rovnag Abdullayev said that the cost of reconstruction of the refinery named after Heydar Aliyev is estimated at 1 billion manat, and it will be financed by public funds. Work on the reconstruction will increase its capacity from 6 to 8 million metric tons per year. Also, the gasoline production capacity will be increased to 3 million metric tons per year.
Oil products are produced at two Baku refineries with a total capacity of 16 million metric tons of oil per year. Both plants are owned by SOCAR, which annually processes approximately 7 million metric tons of oil, extracted onshore and offshore at the expense of its own funds.
In total in 2014, Azerbaijan produced over 5.31 million metric tons of oil products against 5.09 million metric tons of oil products in 2013.
Edited by CN
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