Azerbaijan to double oil refining capacity in Mediterranean region - Aliyev
BAKU. March 3 (Interfax) - Azerbaijan will almost double its oil refining capacity in the Mediterranean region to 22 million tonnes per year with the acquisition of assets in Italy, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said.
"Among important achievements for us is also the acquisition of two refineries in Italy with a total capacity of 10 million tonnes. If we add that to what we already have on the Turkish Aegean coast - a 12-million-tonne refinery - in total we will have 22 million tonnes of refinery capacity in the Mediterranean and Aegean regions, which will definitely help provide sustainable supplies of oil products. Thousands of petrol stations are also part of the deal," Aliyev said on Tuesday at the 12th Ministerial Meeting of the Southern Gas Corridor Advisory Council and the 4th Ministerial Meeting of the Green Energy Advisory Council.
Azerbaijan recently acquired one of the biggest power stations in Turkey- 870 megawatts.
"Last month, a contract was signed with Serbia to build a 500-megawatt power station there. Our contribution to energy security is not limited to our boundaries or to the Southern Gas Corridor," Aliyev said.
The State Oil Company of the Azerbaijani Republic (SOCAR) signed an agreement to acquire 98.82% of the shares of Italiana Petroli from API Holding in September 2025. The deal has not yet been closed.
IP Group was founded in 1933 with its headquarters in Rome. It is fully owned by the Brachetti-Peretti family. Italiana Petroli is one of the largest integrated downstream platforms in Italy. The company owns thousands of gas stations across the country and two oil refineries with annual capacity of around 10 million tonnes. It sells specialized products such as bitumen, aviation fuel and lubricants, and has a logistics system covering the entire country. The deal will give SOCAR control over a network of more than 4,600 filling stations under the IP brand, as well as oil refining capacities. The total cost of the deal is estimated at approximately 3 billion euros.
SOCAR is a shareholder in the STAR refinery in Turkey. STAR was commissioned in 2018, and is designed to process Azeri Light, Kerkuk, and Urals crude oil. It supplies the Petkim petrochemical complex with feedstock and creates conditions for SOCAR to enter the Mediterranean market with its diesel fuel and jet fuel, as well as raw materials for the chemical industry. SOCAR has invested around $7 billion to construct and develop the STAR refinery.
