STAR Rafineri AS, a subsidiary of SOCAR Turkey Energy AS—the Turkish arm of State Oil Co. of Azerbaijan Republic—has officially opened its 10 million-tonne/year SOCAR Turkey Aegean Refinery (STAR) in Izmir, Aliaga, Turkey (OGJ Online, Jan. 28, 2014; Dec. 14, 2010).
STAR Rafineri held a grand opening ceremony to mark the start of full operations of the $6.3-billion project—which initiated preliminary commissioning activities earlier this year—on Oct. 19, SOCAR Turkey said.
Official full commissioning of the refinery follows delivery of the first 80,000-tonne cargo of Azerbaijani Azeri Light crude to the complex in August (OGJ Online, Aug. 8, 2018).
The refinery—which is integrated with Petkim Petrokimya Holding AS’s (Petkim) 3.6-million tpy nearby petrochemical complex—will produce 4.8 million tpy of low-sulfur diesel, 1.6 million tpy of naphtha, 1.6 million tpy of jet fuel, and 300,000 tpy of LPG to meet 25% of Turkey’s refined petroleum product needs (OGJ Online, Sept. 12, 2018).
Earlier in the year, Petkim—of which SOCAR Turkey owns 51%—carried out a $500 million bond to become and indirect shareholder of an 18% stake in the STAR refinery.
The new refinery comes as part of SOCAR’s program to increase competitiveness by further integrating refining and petrochemical operations, as well as to help reduce Turkey’s dependence on imported products.
Contact Robert Brelsford at [email protected].
