Rovnag Abdullayev, the President of the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan (SOCAR), stated in his televised speech on local channel AzTV that SOCAR intends to build an oil refinery plant in Georgia near an oil terminal at Kulevi, Trend reports. The capacity of the plant is 5-10mln tons a year.
The plant will be constructed in the area covering 200 hectares near the terminal that SOCAR purchased late last year.
The Company intends to set up an oil terminal at Kulevi in Georgia at the end of the first, or the beginning of the second quarter of 2007.
It is the first oil terminal outside of Azerbaijan to be purchased by SOCAR. Currently, construction is being carried out at the terminal. The capacity of the terminal is 10mln tons a year with the capacity to increase to 20mln tons. From 2007 SOCAR will become the full owner of the facility.
The Government of Georgia has issued permission for establishment of an oil refinery complex on the Black Sea Coast and organisation of the export of oil products to Black Sea basin countries. The cost of the first phase of the project is $150mln.
The new terminal can receive tankers with a capacity of more than 100,000 tons
Terminal 2000 Limited, which was founded by the Georgian Railway and Austrian company, Agromar Oil, was involved in the construction of the terminal. In 2002 the construction was suspended due to lack of finance.
An international consortium was established in September 2004, which united Georgian and foreign businessmen along with Agromar Oil.