SOCAR to launch $400 mln container terminal in Turkey by 2015
BAKU. January 9 (Interfax) - The State Oil Company of the Azerbaijani Republic (SOCAR) plans to commission a container terminal on the Turkish coast of the Mediterranean Sea within two years, the company's President Rovnag Abdullayev said in an interview published on the website of the Azerbaijani Association of Businesspeople in Turkey.
"There are plans to commission a container terminal costing around $400 million and with a starting capacity of 1.5 million TEU by 2015. This will be the main container terminal in Turkey and on the Mediterranean Sea," Abdullayev said.
In the framework of this program, a preliminary agreement has been struck with Dutch company APM Terminals, which is part of A.P. Moller-Maersk.
Overall, SOCAR will invest $17 billion in the Turkish economy by 2018, Abdullayev said.
Together with Turkish oil complex Petkim, SOCAR has been building a $5 billion oil refinery since October 2011. Besides naphtha, which will serve as feedstock for Petkim, the new refinery will also produce diesel fuel, liquefied natural gas and other petroleum products.
"Twenty percent of the infrastructure work has already been carried out," Abdullayev said.
Also, as part of Petkim's development strategy, there are plans to build a 612-MW power plant.
"The cost of building the plant is $700 million, and another $300 million will be spent on environmental protection measures," Abdullayev said.
In addition, there are plans to implement a project to lay the $7 billion Trans-Anatolian Gas Pipeline (TANAP), which will transport Azerbaijani gas from the Shah Deniz field under Stage 2 from the Georgian-Turkish border to Turkey's western border. Turkey's Botas and TPAO have a 20% stake in the project, and SOCAR owns 80%.
"We have set a goal of turning SOCAR Turkiye Enerji into one of the three leading Turkish companies in 2023," Abdullayev said.
Formerly the joint venture SOCAR-Turcas, SOCAR Turkiye Enerji holds 51% of the shares in the Petkim Petrokimya Holding petrochemicals complex.