STAR refinery processed 10.5M tons of crude oil in 2020

The STAR refinery of the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan (SOCAR) last year secured repayment of loans worth more than $250 million, despite restrictions due to the coronavirus pandemic, Report informs, referring to SOCAR.

A subsidiary of the biggest Turkish foreign direct investor SOCAR Turkey - the STAR oil refinery - reached record levels last year. The STAR refinery, which has a capacity of 10 million tons, increased the production plan to 10.5 million tons. In 2020, the plant sold about 10.3 million tons of crude, sending about 70 percent of this volume to the domestic market.

Head of the SOCAR-Turkey Refining and Petrochemical Department Anar Mammadov, commenting on the high performance of the STAR refinery, said that, along with the supply of naphtha - raw materials for Petkim, the sales that are carried out on the domestic market have made an essential contribution to reducing the current deficit in Turkey.

"Advanced technologies, which we own at STAR refineries, integration with Petkim, user-friendly digital transformation model, efficient production plan, and optimization processes set the stage for this success. With the decrease in demand for jet fuel due to the pandemic, we quickly channeled our potential to diesel fuel and ensured continuous production. In particular, from the second half of 2020, we increased the volume of crude oil refining to 10.5 million tons, exceeding the production capacity," he added.

Anar Mammadov added that refining revenues also fell due to lower oil prices in 2020.

"Turkey’s biggest investment project worth $6.3 billion, the STAR refinery, has achieved repayment of over $250 million this challenging year. Besides, we are continuing our investments to increase the warehouse capacity and the plant’s operational flexibility. This year it is planned to complete the Improvement of Flexibility, Operability, and Profitability (IFOP) project with an investment budget of about $45 million this year. We also plan to complete our investments worth about $600 million in 2022, most of which are related to additional storage capacity," he said.

The STAR refinery ranked 500th in the Istanbul Chamber of Commerce’s ‘Top 5 biggest industrial enterprises in Turkey’ a year after its launch, can process more than 100 types of oil thanks to its advanced configuration.