Refinery: The SOCAR will invest 800 million U.S. dollars in Turkey

The State-owned oil company of the Republic of Azerbaijan (SOCAR)  will inject 800 millions of dollars of funding in the multibillion dollar project to build a refinery in Aliaga, in the province of Izmir, on the Turkish coast in the Aegean Sea.  Once operational by 2016, the SOCAR & Turcas Aegean Refinery, also known under the name of STAR refinery, will allow Turkey to reduce its heavy spending on imports of petroleum products.

«US $ 800 million to invest in the project of the Star refinery will come from the capital of the SOCAR» said Kenan Yavuz, CEO of Socar Turkey, adding that a funding agreement will be reached with a consortium of banks in the course of this month. "For this project estimated at 4 billion US dollars, the SOCAR bring collected $ 1.9 billion of its own capital... », also said Mr. Yavuz. To date, the company has already invested 200 million US dollars for the construction of the facility that will treat 10 million tonnes of crude oil per year, thus producing jet fuel, diesel fuel, coke oil, LPG, naphtha and other oil derivatives.

Main shareholder of Petkim, the largest complex petrochemical in Turkey,  SOCAR is one of the largest foreign investors in Turkey in recent years. To achieve its refinery project, the Azerbaijani company will benefit from the new incentive system set up by Ankara last summer, investment that offers major advantages to strategic projects to reduce imports.

It should be noted that the SOCAR is also the main shareholder of the (TANAP) trans-anatolien pipeline project aimed at transporting Azerbaijani gas to Europe through Turkey.