MOSCOW (MRC) -- Azerbaijan’s state energy company plans to expand the range of processed grades of oil at its STAR refinery in Turkey, reported Reuters with reference to its general manager.
The USD6.3 billion refinery had been processing only Russia’s Urals crude oil since it started operating in October 2018. SOCAR buys Urals from Russia’s Rosneft under a long-term contract as well as in the spot market.
"We will start buying from countries of the Middle East and Africa along with Urals from the next month," said Mesut Ilter, STAR Rafineri general manager.
"It’s not ruled out that we will be buying oil from Saudi Arabia and there is the possibility in the future of buying Kirkuk oil."
He said that the plant had already reached full capacity and intended to process about 900,000 tonnes of crude from May.
"In total, we plan to process 8 million tonnes of crude oil this year, because at the beginning of the year we have been working in test mode," Ilter said.
He added that SOCAR Trading had the exclusive rights to supply oil to STAR, which had an annual capacity of 10 million tonnes.
As MRC informed previously, in October 2018, Azeri state energy company SOCAR started up its new oil refinery in Turkey. The USD6.3 billion Star refinery, the first in Turkey built in 30 years, will supply feedstock to Turkish petrochemicals firm Petkim to help to cut Turkey’s dependence on imported refined oil products. It will boost Turkish refining capacity by 30 percent.
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.
MRC