Azernews.Az

By Aynur Jafarova

Azerbaijan's state energy company SOCAR intends to implement the project on reconstruction of a catalytic cracking unit at Baku Oil Refinery named after Heydar Aliyev in 2017, a source in the company told Trend Agency.

Earlier it was planned to start the modernization work in 2014 and to complete it in 2015.

For the first time, Azerbaijan is addressing this problem that consumption of gasoline in the country is equal to the volumes of its production. This is explained by the growing number of cars in the country. In turn, the modernization and reconstruction work of large plants at refinery named after Heydar Aliyev is needed to increase the quantitative and qualitative indicators of gasoline.

"Once we started importing Premium and Super gasoline, production capacity of AI-92 gasoline was high enough, therefore pressure for the reconstruction has eased. Now we have an additional year and half in stock," the source said.

AI-92 gasoline makes up 90 percent of total consumption in the country, the source said.

Modernization of the unit will enable it to increase its processing capacity by one million tons, and gasoline production by 450,000 tons.

The suspension of A-95 gasoline production in Azerbaijan, the change of policy to transit the gasoline, as well as liberating the prices of this brand of gasoline associated with non-compliance of opportunities of the SOCAR processing have decreased the country's need for high octane gasoline, which in a short period increased several times.

Azerigaz implements project to modernize gas distribution system

The source went on to add that the Azerigaz Production Association (PA) of SOCAR is independently implementing the detailed engineering of a project to complete renovation and modernization of the gas distribution system in Baku.

Earlier, the German E.ON prepared and submitted to SOCAR a feasibility study for the reconstruction and modernization of the gas distribution network of Baku and Absheron, which required certain transformations.

"The work on the detailed engineering of the project will be completed in the next year," the source said.

The source did not give a timeframe for the project's implementation.

In total, the project may require about 1.2 billion euros of investment and it is supposed to implement it fully through foreign investment. The reconstruction process will take at least three years from the time it begins.

The project intends to minimize gas loss, expand and rebuild the current gas distribution system, take into account the population growth and the sustainable development of the industry, as well as to meet the increased demand for natural gas in the future.

Currently, there are about 1.7 million gas subscribers in the country, more than 700,000 of which are in Baku.

Around 15 gas filling stations to appear in Baku by 2015

The source also said around 15 gas filling stations under the SOCAR brand will appear in Baku by 2015.

"The process of establishing some gas filling stations is in the stage of designing, and they will appear in Baku by the end of 2015," the source said.

Touching on SOCAR's plans on the number of gas filling stations in the country, the source said they will be carried out after purchasing a land for their construction.

"The cars will be fueled with compressed natural gas (CNG) at these stations," the source noted.

Azerbaijan's energy giant SOCAR, which is keen on expanding operations in the retail oil products market abroad is involved in exploring oil and gas fields, producing, processing, and transporting oil, gas, and gas condensate, marketing petroleum and petrochemical products in the domestic and international markets, and supplying natural gas to industry and the public in Azerbaijan.

Currently, the company owns some gas stations in Azerbaijan, Switzerland, Georgia and Ukraine. It has representative offices in Georgia, Turkey, Romania, Austria, Switzerland, Kazakhstan, Britain, Iran, Germany and Ukraine, and trading companies in Switzerland, Singapore, Vietnam, Nigeria, and other countries.