GÖKHAN KURTARAN
ISTANBUL- Hürriyet Daily News
The first step for Turkey’s largest private sector investment is taken between Turkish energy company Turcas Petrol and the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan as they invest $5 billion into a joint venture in İzmir.
A refinery of PETKİM in İzmir is seen behind the Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev (L) and Turkish PM Erdoğan. AA photo.
Turkish energy company Turcas Petrol (Turcas) and the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan Republic (SOCAR) have poured nearly $5 billion into a refinery at their PETKİM Petrokimya Holding joint venture in İzmir, making it Turkey’s largest private sector investment.
The refinery is scheduled to begin operating in 2015 with a capacity to process 10 million metric tons of crude oil. The deal is the result of the strong cooperation between Turkey and Azerbaijan, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said during the refinery’s groundbreaking ceremony.
The construction process will create 10,000 temporary jobs, while 1,000 permanent jobs will be created following the opening of the Aliağa Petrochemical Peninsula, Erdoğan said. “We have previously connected Baku oil to the world through the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline,” the prime minister said. Azerbaijani natural gas is also transported to the eastern province of Erzurum via the Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum natural gas pipeline. Erdoğan also said a Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway would also be completed soon to connect the people of the three countries. The privatization of PETKİM reinforced the economic relations between Turkey and Azerbaijan by creating an economic partnership stemming from Turkish-Azeri friendship, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said, adding that the deal followed the logic of the “one nation, two states” mantra shared by Turkey and Azerbaijan.
A cluster model between SOCAR and Turcas
“Our power is our alliance,” Aliyev said, adding that the volume of the natural gas would be increased from Baku to Erzurum. As part of the investment, SOCAR and Turcas will follow a cluster model. There will be a refinery with feedstock reliability, a crude oil processing capacity of 10 million tons, a container terminal with a minimum capacity of 1 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEU), an integrated port and a logistic area by the end of 2015. As part of the deal, Turcas and SOCAR established a joint venture company called SOCAR & Turcas Energy (STEAŞ), 25 percent of which will be controlled by Turcas.
Tuesday, October 25, 2011
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