BAKU, Azerbaijan, December 20. The upcoming 2024 may become a record-breaking year for SOCAR's Heydar Aliyev Baku Oil Refinery in terms of output of almost all types of oil products, an informed source in the government told Trend.
The growth is expected in 8 out of 10 types of basic oil products output at the refinery facilities, which celebrated its 70th anniversary this year.
Production of over 5.84 million tons of oil products is forecasted in 2024, of which 2.408 million tons will be diesel fuel. This will be the peak production of this type of petroleum product, which complies with the international "Euro-5" standard in Azerbaijan since 2023.
The growth of diesel production is spurred by the global market demand for it amid Russia's restriction of exports of its oil products in response to international sanctions over the Russia-Ukraine conflict.
"The EU states are stepping up diesel purchases from Azerbaijan, Middle Eastern countries, and several Latin American countries. The refinery will try to keep the output of this type of fuel at the level of 2.3-2.4 million tons per year during 2024-27," the source said.
Last year, the refinery produced 2.04 million tons of diesel (15.5 percent less than in 2021), due to a 1.5-month refinery shutdown to replace the main production units in 2022 as part of the process of large-scale modernization of the plant.
As for motor gasoline, the refinery is expected to start producing Euro-5 gasoline in the first quarter of 2024, and it too could reach peak volumes of almost 1.5 million tons per year in 2024-2025. The refinery produced 1.28 million tons of motor gasoline in 2022 (up 1.4 percent compared to 2021).
For jet fuel (kerosene), the figures depend on the applications of the state-owned AZAL (largest airline in the country), but in 2024-2027 are scheduled at the level of 545,000-546,000 tons per year. For oil bitumen production in 2024-2027, the plant is expected to produce 545,000-546,000 tons per year. A high level of production next year is also expected for petroleum coke - almost 240,000 tons. Heating oil (fuel oil) production may reach 9,400 tons in 2024 and 10,000 tons in the next three years. For lubricating oils, production of 29,500 tons in 2024-2025 is targeted, with a slight decline to 28,000 tons by 2028.
The refinery processed 6.24 million tons of crude oil in 2022 (96.3 percent refining depth).
The capacity of the refinery is 6.5 million tons per year, but following the results of large-scale modernization and reconstruction, the enterprise will be designed to process all grades of oil of the Caspian region countries, and its capacity will increase to 7.5 million tons per year.
Full completion of the modernization project is planned for 2027. After modernization, the refinery will be capable of producing up to 2 million tons of motor gasoline per year, 2.9 million tons of diesel fuel per year, and 1 million tons of jet fuel.
The cost of the refinery modernization and reconstruction project is about $3 billion.