SOCAR Methanol gives 0.7% of world methanol output
At present, 0.7 percent of world production of methanol accounts for SOCAR Methanol LLC of Azerbaijan’s state oil company SOCAR, Elnur Mustafayev, director of SOCAR Methanol LLC, said.
Mustafayev made the remarks at the Argus Azerbaijan International Petroleum Summit 2017 in Baku.
"The production capacity of the plant is 650,000-700,000 tons per year, which is stipulated by frequent overhaul, which is carried out every three years," he said.
“The plant has produced 644,000 tons for the entire period of operation, of which 235,000-240,000 tons accounted for 2017,” Mustafayev added.
"A technical audit of the plant equipment was carried out to adjust the plan for new work in January-February 2017, which we intend to implement by late 2017," he said.
Mustafayev added that all production plans envisaged for 2017 for the supply of gas, which is the main raw material for the production of methanol, were carried out without any delays.
“Production plans have been fulfilled by 95 percent this year,” he added.
"We have no doubts that the plan will be completely fulfilled,” he said. “We even intend to exceed the plan by 5-10 percent."
The methanol plant was built by AzMeCo LLC. The methanol plant started selling its products in January 2014. The plant’s annual output capacity is 720,000 tons.
Azerbaijan Railways reveals when BTK starts transporting passengers
From 2018, the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars (BTK) railway will start transporting passengers, Javid Gurbanov, head of the Azerbaijan Railways CJSC, told reporters in Baku.
“As you know, we have purchased 30 railway cars that were produced by Swiss company Stadler using a special technology,” he said.
Gurbanov added that travel time from Azerbaijan’s Baku to Turkey’s Kars will be about 16-18 hours.
“The Georgian part of the railway stretches through the highlands, where the speed of the train will not exceed 60-70 kilometers per hour, so the travel time will be 16-18 hours,” he explained.
He added that tariffs for passenger transportation via BTK have not been discussed yet.
The BTK railway has been constructed on the basis a Georgian-Azerbaijani-Turkish intergovernmental agreement. The railway’s peak capacity will be 17 million tons of cargo per year. At an initial stage, this figure will be one million passengers and 6.5 million tons of cargo.