Azerbaijan discloses investment in Turkish refinery project
State Oil Fund of the Republic of Azerbaijan (Sofaz) said it allocated just over 3% of its budget expenditures in 2013 for financing the construction of the 214,000-b/d Star Refinery planned in Aliaga, Turkey (OGJ Online, Dec. 14, 2010).
Between January and December 2013, Sofaz allotted $474 million of its total budget expenditures of $15.7 billion to construction-related costs for the Star refining complex, the oil fund said.
The investment announcement from Sofaz follows the US Export-Import Bank’s recent authorization of a $640.7 million direct loan to Star Refinery AS, Istanbul, to finance export of US equipment for the construction of the complex (OGJ Online, Dec. 6, 2013).
Star Refinery is the first project planned on the Petkim Peninsula by SOCAR Turkey Energy AS, a joint venture of State Oil Co. of Azerbaijan Republic and the government of Turkey. SOCAR Turkey owns 51% of Petkim, operator of a petrochemical complex with which the new refinery will be integrated.
The planned refinery will include a 66,000-b/d hydrocracker, a 40,000-b/d delayed coker, and a 28,000-b/d continuous catalytic regeneration reformer.
In addition to a hydrogen unit able to produce 3.84 million cu m/day, the complex also will have hydrotreating capacities of 20,000 b/d for naphtha, 26,000 b/d for kerosine, and 68,000 b/d for diesel.
