Azerbaijan, Baku, July 23 / Trend /
On July 23, Ankara hosted a ceremony to grant a license to SOCAR-Turcas JV to build a new refinery in Turkey, SOCAR (State Oil Company of Azerbaijan) reported on July 23.
The license issued by the State Regulator of the Energy Market of Turkey was presented to the SOCAR Rovnag Abdullayev president by the Minister of Energy and Natural Resources of Turkey Taner Yıldız.
The executive director of SOCAR-Turcas, a board member of the petrochemical complex Petkim Kenan Yavuz said that the new plant will be built in the area of petrochemical complex Petkim (SOCAR with Turcas own 51 percent participate share in the venture) in Aliaga in Turkey. According to him, the construction of the plant, which will play an important role in the industry in Turkey, will involve 7-10,000 people. After starting its operation, the plant will employ about 1,000 people.
Earlier, Foster Wheeler AG announced that a Global Engineering and Construction Group subsidiary received a contract from the SOCAR-TURCAS Rafineri A.S. Alliance to build a grassroots refinery at the Petkim Petrokimya A.S. facilities in Aliaga, Turkey.
The contract covers the refinery's front-end engineering design, licensing and a basic design package for a delayed coker, which will use Foster Wheeler SYDECSM delayed coking technology.
The facility will have a capacity of 214,000 barrels per stream day (bpsd). Naphtha and fuel oil from the hydrocracking unit will be delivered to Petkim for petrochemical use.
The refinery will include crude and vacuum distillation units, naphtha hydrotreating, a 40,000 bpsd delayed coking unit, a 66,000 bpsd hydrocracking unit, kerosene and diesel hydrotreaters, LPG caustic treatment units, a 28,000 bpsd continuous catalytic reformer, a saturated gas unit, amine and sour water stripper, sulfur and tail gas treatment units and a 160,000 Nm3/h hydrogen unit, as well as utilities, auxiliary systems and offsite facilities.
The SYDECSM process will be designed to maximize clean liquid yields while minimizing fuel coke yields. Foster Wheeler's work under the contract is expected to end by late 2010.
In early June, SOCAR-TURCAS Rafineri A.S. received a license from the Turkish energy market regulator to build an oil refinery with a capacity of 10 million tons per year near Petkim, a holding in which SOCAR has equity participation.
The new plant's capacity will be 10 million tons per year. Four million tons will be supplied to meet Petkim's raw material needs. The remaining amount, particularly diesel and jet fuel and other energy resources, will be sold on the Turkish and European markets.
In 2008, the alliance between SOCAR and Turcas Petrol / Injaz Projects has won a tender to sell 51 percent stake of chemical concern Petkim, offering $2.04 billion. Now Turkey imports 70-75 percent of the necessary chemical products. Investments of SOCAR / Turcas / Injaz to the development of Petkim will reduce imports by 30 percent.
Petkim Petrokimya Holding manufactures plastic packaging, fabric, PVC, detergents. It is the only Turkish producer of such products. The company exports a quarter of the production.