SOCAR reveals plans for 2024 to expand production at refineries in Turkey

The capacity of the SOCAR Turkiye Aegean Refinery (STAR), built in Izmir by the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan in Turkey, is planned to increase to 11.5 million tons per year after 2024, President of SOCAR Turkey Refining and Petrochemical Business Unit (a subdivision of SOCAR Turkiye Enerji) and Director-General of the Petkim petrochemical complex Anar Mammadov said at a presentation for Azerbaijani journalists in Aliaga, Report informs.

He said that in 2024 the plant will be closed for scheduled repairs, during which some ‘bottlenecks’ will be eliminated.

“Additional necessary equipment will also be supplied and installed, as a result of which, after 2024, the production capacity of the plant will be increased to 115% (of the original capacity). This won’t cost much. In general, we sent an appeal to the Turkish regulatory authorities, in which we indicated the maximum increase in the refinery’s capacity to 13 million tons per year, but this doesn’t mean that we intend to bring the refinery’s capacity to this figure. In the future, this may be possible if deemed appropriate. The increase to 11.5 million tons per year is quite realistic,” Mammadov said.

However, he didn’t name the amount of investment required for this.

The opening ceremony of the STAR refinery took place in Izmir on October 19, 2018. The groundbreaking ceremony for the plant was held on October 5, 2011. STAR holds the first strategic investment promotion document in Turkey.

Initially, STAR processed 10 million tons of oil per year, and this year the refinery’s capacity has increased to 11 million tons. The enterprise is capable of processing such oil grades as Urals, Azeri Light and Kirkuk. The plant has the production capacity of 1.6 million tons of naphtha, 4.8 million tons of diesel, as well as aviation fuel, LPG, petroleum coke, mixed xylene.