Baku, Azerbaijan, Oct. 22
By Maksim Tsurkov - Trend:
SOCAR (State Oil Company of Azerbaijan) and Austrian Pörner Group have signed a contract for the construction of a bitumen unit as part of the modernization of the Heydar Aliyev Baku Oil Refinery, SOCAR said Oct. 22.
While speaking at the event, SOCAR President Rovnag Abdullayev said that it is planned to increase the processing capacity of the refinery and establish the production of high-quality oil products meeting the Euro-5 standard in a short period of time as part of the reconstruction and modernization of the Heydar Aliyev oil refinery.
"It is planned to reconstruct the primary processing, catalytic cracking, catalytic reforming and factory-wide units, as well as to construct several new units," Abdullayev said.
The new bitumen production unit will be commissioned in mid-2018.
"The construction of a new bitumen unit will completely decommission the existing infrastructure at the Azneftyag plant, optimize the operating costs at the Heydar Aliyev refinery, establish high-quality bitumen production and contribute to the improvement of the ecological situation in Baku," the statement said.
The Pörner Group CEO Andreas Pörner expressed satisfaction with an opportunity to develop cooperation with SOCAR, and with selection of Pörner Group, which has the best practices in this area, as a contractor for bitumen plant construction.
Director of the Baku Oil Refinery named after Heydar Aliyev, Elman Ismayilov and the Pörner CEO Andreas Pörner signed the contract.
Modernization of the Baku Oil Refinery named after Heydar Aliyev will be completed by late 2018.
The refinery's processing capacity after the reconstruction will rise from 6 million to 7.5 million tons of oil per year.
The cost of the modernization is estimated at $1 billion.
SOCAR announced the liquidation of Azneftyag Oil Refinery on January 1, 2015 and its merger with the Baku Oil Refinery named after Heydar Aliyev.
The decision to do so was taken as part of work to improve and optimize SOCAR's structure.
Azerbaijan produced over 5.31 million tons of oil products in 2014 compared to 5.09 million tons of oil products in 2013.
Edited by CN
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