Both Azerbaijan and Turkey will benefit from SOCAR industrial complex in Aliaga - STATEMENT

"By the end of the year, we, together with BP, are planning to lay a basis of a new project estimated at about $1.8 bn," Deputy Chief of Public Relations and Events Department at SOCAR Ibrahim Ahmadov told in an interview with Report.

According to him, a tender has been announced on FEED-design of a new petrochemical complex in Turkey with the results to come out in the months ahead. The project is of great importance not only for Azerbaijan in terms of greater profit, but also for Turkey. Once the complex is inaugurated, Turkey will no longer need imports of 1 million tons of Purified Terepthalic Acid (PTA).

"We will also replace the annual import of 800,000 tonnes of paraxylol with our own production inside the country. This project is an important chain in the integration of our industrial complex in Turkey, already including STAR refinery and Petkim, since the new complex will use our own production as crude - a reformate, received during oil refining at STAR," he said.

Ahmadov noted that the integration of the future complex into the existing SOCAR infrastructure in Aliaga peninsula (Turkey), direct proximity to the source of crude are decisive factors of high profitability of the project. The new Mercury complex is planned to be commissioned in 2023.

Notably, on December 20, 2018, SOCAR and BP signed a heads of agreement (HoA) to evaluate the creation of a joint venture that would build and operate a world-scale petrochemicals complex in Turkey.

The proposed facility, in Aliaga in western Turkey, will produce 1.25 million tonnes per annum (tpa) of purified terephthalic acid (PTA), 840,000 tpa paraxylene (PX) and 340,000 tpa benzene.

As for the operation of STAR oil refinery, Ahmadov noted that the facility will refine a total of 8 million tons of crude oil this year. Its operation will also ensure partial import of some oil products to Turkey and thus contribute greatly to reducing shortage in country's foreign trade.

He said STAR will produce another petrochemical product - reformate, which is of great importance for the new petrochemical complex Mercury, where the product will be further refined turning into high value-added petrochemical products. The reformate produced at the STAR oil refinery will be used before the new complex is inaugurated.

"The refinery produces high value-added oil products, such as diesel, jet fuel, LNG and petroleum coke. The sale of these products in the Turkish market and beyond means an additional hundreds of millions of annual profit for Azerbaijan and covering a large part of the trade deficit for Turkey," Ahmadov said.