Turkish minister: STAR refinery of great importance for Turkey

Baku. 17 August. REPORT.AZ/ Turkish Minister of Science, Industry and Technology Faruk Özlü has today visited territory of the STAR Oil Refinery of the SOCAR, construction of which is ongoing in Izmir, Turkey.

Report informs, SOCAR Turkey Energy Director General Zaur Gahramanov informed the minister about the work carried out at the plant.

The minister told reporters that the STAR project is of great importance for Turkey: “STAR plant will save $ 1.5 bln per year in import if oil products. In fact, dependence in jet fuel from abroad will end. The plant, which will start production in 2018, will meet needs of petrochemical industry in significant amount of naphtha and similar products”.

Notably, the foundation of STAR refinery was laid on October 25, 2011, by the President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev and President of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. The refinery with a producing potential of 10 mln tons crude oil/year, will start to operate in 2018. The plant to produce 4.7 million tons of diesel, 1.6 million tons of jet fuel, 320,000 tons of LPG, 1.6 million tons of naphtha, 690,000 tons of oil coke, 159,000 tons of sulfur and other products.

Mainly, Ural, Azeri Light and Kirkuk oil types will be processed in the refinery.

$ 3.3 billion required for the construction of STAR are financed through loans for project financing, $ 2.4 billion through investments by Azerbaijan.