Turkish Bank willing to finance SOCAR energy project

Turkish Denizbank will help finance a construction project for the Star refinery belonging to SOCAR (State Oil Company of Azerbaijan) in Izmir, the Turkish Borsagundem newspaper reported on March 19.

'Denizbank expressed its willingness to allocate $500 million for this purpose. SOCAR appealed to the Turkish banks after rejection by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and the International Finance Corporation (IFC) to finance the project', the newspaper said.

The newspaper also wrote about reaching an agreement between SOCAR and Denizbank on participation in the project.

As SOCAR Vice-President for Economic Affairs Suleyman Gasimov told Trend earlier, all the banks and interested parties have already submitted their final proposals to participate in the financing of this project which is valid until March 31.

SOCAR Turkey Yatirim JSC was established with an authorised capital of $1.9 billion and a 40 percent public share in accordance with the decree of Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev on additional measures to support the participation of the Azerbaijani side in the Star refinery construction project in Turkey. The public share at 40 percent worth $760 million in JSC will be funded by the State Oil Fund of Azerbaijan (SOFAR) according to the decree.

The total cost of the SOCAR refinery construction project in Turkey exceeds $5 billion.

The State Oil Fund has already allocated $475 million for the project's construction as part of Azerbaijan's funding for the building of the new refinery.

In May 2013, SOCAR signed an EPC contract (Engineering, Procurement and Construction) with a consortium of companies to build the STAR oil refinery. The winner of the tender was an alliance of companies, Tecnicas Reunidas S.A., Saipem S.p.A, GS Engineering & Construction Corp and Itochu.

It is planned to carry out the processing of such types of crude oil as Azeri Light, Kirkuk and the Urals at the refinery.

At the STAR plant the annual production level of naphtha which is used as a primary raw material by Petkim, will be 1.66 million tons. Currently, more than 80 per cent of Petkim's needs in naphtha are met through imports, but with the introduction of a new oil refinery, dependence on imports will be reduced to zero.

Along with naphtha, the new refinery will produce diesel fuel with ultra-low sulphur at a level of 5.95 million tons, as well as 500,000 tons of aviation kerosene, 500,000 tons of reformates, 630,000 tons of petroleum coke, 240,000 tons of liquefied gas, 415,000 tons of mixed xylol, 75,000 tons of olefin liquefied gas and 145,000 tons of sulphur. The refinery will not produce gasoline and fuel oil.

It is planned to commission the refinery in 2017.

ANN.Az