Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov. 28
By Maksim Tsurkov – Trend:
As much as $3.9 billion have been spent so far on the construction of STAR oil refinery of Azerbaijan’s state oil company SOCAR in Turkey, the Turkish mass media outlets reported Nov. 28 with reference to Ibrahim Palaz, director general of the refinery.
He said that the total cost of the project is $5.7 billion.
“As much as $3.3 billion of the total amount are financed by 23 banks,” said Palaz. “The loan agreement was concluded in a timely manner and on favorable terms, currently, the price of the loan would have been 1.5 percent more expensive, which would mean an additional cost of $450 million. The project needs no additional financing.”
He noted that the construction work at the refinery continues in accordance with the schedule.
“At the moment, the project is executed at 78.3 percent,” Palaz said. “The engineering work was carried out at 99.5 percent, the purchase work was done at 95.5 percent, and the construction work was implemented at 57.5 percent. As it was earlier planned, the refinery will be launched in April 2018.”
The annual naphtha production volume, used by Petkim oil and chemical complex (where SOCAR has equity share) as the main raw material, will amount to 1.66 million tons at the STAR refinery.
Along with naphtha, the new oil refinery will produce diesel fuel with ultra-low sulfur to the amount of 5.95 million tons, aviation kerosene - 500,000 tons, reformate - 500,000 tons, petroleum coke - 630,000 tons, liquefied gas - 240,000 tons, mixed xylene - 415,000 tons, olefin LPG - 75,000 tons and 145,000 tons of sulfur. The refinery will not produce petrol and fuel oil.
It is planned to refine Azeri Light, Kerkuk and URALS oil at the plant.
At present, the share distribution in the project is as follows: 60 percent is owned by Rafineri Holding A.Ş. (100 percent owned by SOCAR Turkey Enerji A.Ş.), which had previously acquired all the remaining 18.5 percent share of Turcas Petrol in the project, and 40 percent belongs to SOCAR.
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