BAKU, Azerbaijan, Jan.24
By Leman Zeynalova – Trend:
2019 is of special importance for SOCAR Turkey as a year in which the company started to get the results of its investments, Zaur Gahramanov, CEO of SOCAR Turkey told Trend.
“As you know, we opened the Trans Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline (TANAP), which is a huge step towards ensuring energy supply security, in June 2018. Since then the commercial natural gas supplies to Turkey began. The construction of the entire 1,850 kilometers long TANAP was completed in late 2019, thereby bringing natural gas to the European gate with the ceremony held in Ipsala,” said Gahramanov.
He noted that after the commissioning of the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP), Azerbaijani natural gas will be supplied to Europe.
“Another huge investment is Star Refinery worth $6.3 billion, which was opened in October 2018. Star Refinery that produces diesel, naphtha, jet fuel and LPG, which play an important role in Turkey's current account deficit, started to operate at full capacity in 2019 and began sales to the domestic market,” said Gahramanov.
The CEO went on to add that another important step was the acquisition of Bursagaz, Kayserigaz, SOCAR Enerji Ticaret, Enervis, and Millenicom in June 2019.
Thus, SOCAR Turkey also became involved in natural gas distribution, thereby completing the whole refinery-petrochemical-energy-logistics-distribution-supply chain, he added.
“We launched an integration process covering all of our group companies and created SOCAR Turkey Refinery and Petrochemical Business Unit, SOCAR Turkey Natural Gas Business Unit, SOCAR Turkey Innovation and Technologies Business Unit and SOCAR Turkey Logistics Business Unit. I believe that Star Refinery was the first concrete proof of what kind of advantages this integration will bring us. We saw the benefits of the integrated operation of Star Refinery and Petkim in the financial results of Petkim in the third quarter of 2019. We will continue to increase synergy and profitability in our business processes with the common infrastructure we have created in our business units and common services, which will be provided,” Gahramanov concluded.
---
Follow the author on Twitter: @Lyaman_Zeyn