Azerbaijan, Baku, June 13 / Trend, E. Ismayilov /
Petkim, the large Turkish petrochemical complex which is co-owned by SOCAR-Turcas, expects a 15-20 percent growth in production, a source in the complex said on Monday.
He said that this year significant increases in production are not anticipated. If an increase were to occur, it would be associated with attempts to increase the production capacity for next year's production goals.
"Last year Petkim reached a record in production. Now work is underway to increase capacity, which will be completed in 2012, when production is expected to increase," the source said.
The capacity of the Turkish petrochemical complex Petkim will increase from the current 3.2 million tons up to 6-6.5 million tons by 2020, Petkim Petrokimya Holding director General Hayati Ozturk said earlier.
The construction of a refinery is planned to be completed by 2015. The refinery will provide the complex with a range of raw materials, as well as the modernization of operations and capacity expansion of the petrochemical complex. The port complex will be constructed within four years. It will include a tank farm, as well as the container terminal with a capacity of 1.2 million TEU.
The volume of investments required to carry out the work before 2015 will amount to $6 billion, of which over $300 million will be invested by the complex and the rest by SOCAR-Turcas.
In 2008 the alliance between SOCAR and Turcas Petrol / Injaz Projects won a tender to buy a 51 percent stake in chemical projects, offering $2.04 billion. Now Turkey imports 70-75 percent of its demanded chemical products. Investments in the development of Petkim will reduce imports by 30 percent.
The Petkim Petrokimya Holding manufactures plastic packaging, fabric, PVC and detergents. It is the only Turkish producer of such products and exports a quarter of the production.