Azernews.Az

By Amina Nazarli

Roughly 54 percent of the project for constructing the Star refinery in the Petkim peninsula of Turkey’s Izmir city has been implemented.

This was announced by Head of SOCAR Turkey Enerji Kenan Yavuz on his Facebook page on March 1.

He noted that 8,200 people have been involved in the refinery’s construction.

Moreover, the installation of 60 percent of equipment will be completed in coming months as part of the construction of Star refinery, according to Yavuz.

“The equipment is already being installed,” he said, stressing that the production at the refinery will start in 2018.

Once completed, the Star refinery will be the first refinery to start operations in Turkey since 1972.

STAR Rafineri A.S., majority owned by Azerbaijan’s state energy company SOCAR, will be capable of refining Azeri Light, Kirkuk, and Urals oil grades. The annual naphtha production volume, used by Petkim as the main raw material, will hit 1.66 million tons at the Star refinery.

Along with naphtha, the new oil refinery will produce diesel fuel with ultra-low sulfur to the amount of 5.95 million tons, aviation kerosene - 500,000 tons, reformate - 500,000 tons, petroleum coke - 630,000 tons, liquefied gas - 240,000 tons, mixed xylene - 415,000 tons, olefin LPG - 75,000 tons and 145,000 tons of sulfur. The refinery will not produce petrol and fuel oil.

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.

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Amina Nazarli is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @amina_nazarli

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