Azerbaijan, Baku, Sept. 16 / Trend E. Ismayilov /
SOCAR has created a facility on petroleum product wholesale in Turkey, SOCAR head Rovnag Abdullayev told media.
He said that at present, SOCAR aims at increasing the number of oil depots in Turkey for greater coverage in this country.
The issue of acquisition or establishment of retail sales of petroleum products will be relevant after the construction of the company's refinery in Turkey.
The principal purpose of this enterprise construction is to provide Petkim with raw materials, in which SOCAR has equity participation.
The total capacity of the refinery is 10 million tons and oil products produced at the plant will be designed to meet the needs of the Petkim chemical company and Turkey's domestic market.
Around $6 million will be directed for the construction of a new refinery in Turkey - STAR. This will be financed partly through shareholders (30 per cent), which is about $1.8 billion and the rest through bank loans.
Annual production of naphtha which is used as the primary Petkim raw material will be 1.66 million tons in STAR. Currently, more than 80 per cent of the needs of Petkim in naphtha are met through imports whose dependence will be reduced to zero after the opening of the new refinery.