Today.Az » World news » Turkey's Petkim to ready $3.5 billion refinery project by 2014
07 January 2010 [17:32] - Today.Az
SOCAR & Turcas Refining, which was founded in 2008 as a 100 percent subsidiary of SOCAR & Turcas Energy, aims to ready its refinery project at the Petkim Aliağa Complex of the Aegean port city of İzmir by 2014.
As the company received the long-awaited approval of the Environmental Impact Assessment Report, it sped up its activities for the refinery project to be established on a land of 13,750 acres. Engineering and detailed studies will be conducted this year for the refinery, referred to as the largest investment of the last 40 years. With an investment cost of around $3.5 billion, the refinery is expected to be complete by 2014.
A significant phase in the project of SOCAR & Turcas Refining has been completed and the Ministry of Environment and Forestry has approved the Environmental Impact Assessment Report, said Kenan Yavuz, chief executive officer of SOCAR & Turcas Energy and board member of Petkim.
Noting that prior to the privatization, SOCAR & Turcas had a project to build a refinery in Ceyhan, said Yavuz. “We have delayed this project, and prioritized the refinery to be built on Petkim’s land. It is a very important development that we have obtained the Environmental Impact Assessment Report. We will conduct engineering and detailed studies this year. Construction is the easiest part. We want to ready the project by the beginning of 2014.”
The refinery is expected to process around 10 million tons of crude
oil annually, providing additional employment for approximately 1,500
to 2,000 people.
Regarding the technical details of the investment, Yavuz said, "The
fact that the refinery is built on Petkim land [with infrastructure]
will bring an advantage of around 30 percent in investment cost. This
investment will bring raw material security and enable the common use
of the existing infrastructure and form refinery-petrochemicals
integration. The establishment of an oil refinery constitutes the first
step to be taken on the path of our goal to make Petkim a regional
power.”
Following SOCAR & Turcas’ takeover of Petkim on May 30, 2008,
the firm faced turmoil, Yavuz said.
“Feeling the signals of the crisis,
Petkim launched crisis management on Sept. 9, 2008. We pursued first
sale and then production strategy. We minimized our stocks rapidly.
Undergoing a controlled period during the final quarter of 2008, we
have become Europe’s most rapid petrochemicals firms to overcome the
crisis.” /Hurriyet Daily News/
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