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Company to complete SOCAR ORP feasibility study in Turkey

Oil&Gas Materials 5 November 2009 15:49 (UTC +04:00)

Azerbaijan, Baku, Nov. 5 / Trend E.Ismayilov /

The feasibility study of the State Oil Company of the Azerbaijan Republic's (SOCAR) ORP oil refinery near the large Petkim Turkish petrochemical complex will soon be completed, SOCAR Turkey Office head Seymur Agayev told Trend .

The new plant will meet Petkim's raw material needs. The remaining oil products will be sold on the local market and in Europe.

"The company is now working to obtain building permits and is developing a feasibility study for the ORP construction in Turkey," Agayev said.

"We have not set exact dates, but we expect to receive a permit soon," he said "We are trying to finalize the feasibility study by late 2009. This is a correlative procedure and want to conduct it properly to prepare our documents according to requirements." 

The company has already submitted an environmental report to obtain permission to build.

According to Agayev, the energy regulatory body will make a final decision on the project only after the environmental report is approved in each instance and submitted to the regulatory body together with the feasibility study. The energy regulatory body is a structure regulating both the oil and gas domestic market in Turkey, he added. 

The plant's initial capacity is specified at 10 million tons per year to prepare a pilot feasibility study. However, a higher capacity will likely be announced later, Agayev said.

The planned capacity of the ORP to be built in Turkey will amount to 10-15 million tons of oil annually, SOCAR head Rovnag Abdullayev said at a news conference in Kiev earlier.

According to the official, the company is reviewing projects to expand the production of the Petkim petrochemical complex and surrounding territories.

"We want to expand the complex's activities," Agayev said. "It would no longer be a purely chemical manufacturer. This matter is still under development."

Under the short-and medium-term investment program, the port's activities on Petkim's territory will expand. The existing terminal is designed to meet the company's needs, "but now we are trying to develop a port to provide services to third parties [...] the port has a certain capacity, it requires just small investments in infrastructure. We believe in this project," Agayev said.

Much depends on Turkey, which already has many ports.

"But we want to make this a competitive port," Agayev said. "Therefore, the necessary investments will be made in the short term." 

Formerly the Turkish Privatization Administration approved the SOCAR-Turcas Petrol-Injaz alliance as the winner of a tender to sell a 51-percent share of the Turkish petrochemical holding Petkim. Turkey currently imports 70-75 percent of its chemical products, but while developing Petkim, the alliance will provide an opportunity to increase imports to 30 percent.

Petkim specializes in producing plastic packages, fabrics and detergents and is only producer of these goods in Turkey.

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