Star oil refinery starts operation in 2018 -VIDEO

Baku. 1 September. REPORT.AZ/ State Oil Company of Azerbaijan Republic (SOCAR) will start first production in "Star" oil refinery which is under construction near the city of Izmir, Turkey, in March 2018. Report informs, Kenan Yavuz, President of SOCAR Turkey said at a meeting with Azerbaijani journalists.

According to him, total of 29% of the work was carried out at the processing plant. He said that, up to now 2 billion USD spent on "Star" oil refinery. Approximately 300 mln USD was financed by banks.

K.Yavuz stated, installation of equipment will start next year.According to him, during the investment phase, about 10 thousand people will work at the plant until the end of 2017."We plan to start production in March 2018.After the start of production, 1 000 people will be provided with work on a permanent basis."

The head of company said that "Star" has a number one strategic investment incentive certificate in Turkey. With this document Turkey will allocate 1 billion USD of Incentives.Currently, all products that will be produced by "Star" refinery imported from abroad.

In other words imported products that cannot be produced in Turkey, will be manufactured in this plant.

Total investment cost of "Star" oil refinery is 5.6 billion USD.

Of which, 2.4 billion USD - SOCAR's own resources and the remaining 3.2 billion USD will be financed by banks.

To this end, a total of 3.2 billion USD funds were provided from 23 foreign banks.

With 18-year payment plan, this project is the largest project in the history of finance in Turkey's real sector, carried out by the consortium, which includes US, Japan, Korea, Spain and Italy, "Eximbank".

At the same time, "Petlim" container port built by "SOCAR Turkey" in Petkim peninsula will receive ships in January 2016. K.Yavuz said that the work carried out at the port is almost completed, the first part will be completed in the near term. 

"Presidents of Azerbaijan and Turkey will attend the official opening ceremony. The exact date will depend on the schedules of heads of state. The official opening ceremony will likely to take place in 2016 ", he said.

K.Yavuz added that, it is going to be the largest container port of Aegean Sea and Turkey's third. "Petlim" will have the highest standards in Turkey in terms of quality. The world's largest investment bank - "Goldman Sachs" is a partner in the project. 30% of "Petlim" shares sold to "Goldman Sachs" for 250 million USD. As a result of sale of shares, the market value of port reached 1 billion USD".

He also said that the main feature of "Petlim" is that more than 11 thousand of the world's largest container ships can approach to the port.

The total investment cost of "Petlim" is 400 million USD. 300 mln funded by "Petkim".

"APM Terminals" having 28 years of experience in this field will manage the company: "Our goal is to see the container ships in the harbor since January 2016."