SOCAR's New Oil Refinery in Turkey to Start Up Next Week

Azeri state energy company SOCAR plans to start up its new oil refinery in Turkey next week, a spokeswoman at SOCAR's Turkish division said on Tuesday.

The $6.3 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.

The plant on Turkey's Aegean coast would have capacity to process about 10 million tonnes per year (200,000 barrels per day) of crude.

The plant is expected to produce 1.6 million tonnes of naphtha and 420,000 tonnes of xylenes. It will also produce about 4.8 million tonnes of diesel, alongside jet fuel, petroleum coke, reformate, sulphur and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG).

Turkey produces a surplus of gasoline but relies on imports of diesel, with consumption of the fuel growing by about 7 percent a year and expected to reach 25 million tonnes in 2019.

Reporting by Nailia Bagirova; writing by Margarita Antidze