Azerbaijan, Baku, Oct. 21 / Trend E.Ismayilov /
The construction of a new oil refinery by SOCAR will be the biggest investment of one project in Turkey's private sector and will meet the needs of the Turkish Petkim Petrochemical Complex's for raw materials, Petkim told Trend on Friday.
Petkim said the foundation laying ceremony for the new refinery STAR will be held on October 25 and the plant will be in production in 2015. The new refinery's capacity will hit 10 million tons per year and the volume of investments for the construction will exceed $5 billion.
A spokesman said: "About 10,000 people will be involved in construction with 1000 being retained to run the plant."
The alliance between SOCAR and Turcas Petrol /Injaz Projects resulted in them winning a tender in 2008 to buy a 51 per cent stake in various chemical projects worth $2.04 billion. Now Turkey imports 70 to 75 per cent of its chemical products. Investments in the development of Petkim will reduce its imports by 30 per cent.
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 its production.