SOCAR may acquire network of filling stations in Turkey

By Azernews

By Nigar Abbasova

Azerbaijan’s state energy giant SOCAR may acquire another network of filling stations abroad. The company will participate in a tender announced by Austrian OMV Company to purchase a network of some 1,785 filling stations in Turkey.  

The network is operated by Petrol Ofisi, OMV’s subsidiary in Turkey.  

 The head of SOCAR's investment department, Vagif Aliyev, said that the company has already submitted an application for participating in the tender.

Head of SOCAR Rovnag Abdullayev earlier confirmed the interest of the company in buying assets of OMV in Turkey, saying it’s connected with the launch of Star oil refinery in Izmir city.

SOCAR earlier reached a preliminary agreement on the purchase of OMV Petrol Ofisi terminal located in Izmir, while the deal is expected to be signed by late 2016.

SOCAR, which occupies a lion’s share in the total volume of investments made by Azerbaijan in Turkey, is expected to increase the volume of its investments up to $18 billion after the purchase of the terminal.

In early 2016 Austrian company announced its intention to sell the whole packet of shares of OMV Petrol Ofisi A.S. to optimize its own costs. Within the scope of its strategy the company is intended to be focused on the extractive enterprises as well as on the oil processing activities. In this regard OMV has launched the selling process of 100 percent of OMV Petrol Ofisi A.S, which possesses one of the largest refueling station networks in Turkey.

Being the sole producer of oil products in Azerbaijan, SOCAR also operates its filling stations in Georgia, Ukraine and Switzerland. It has representative offices in Georgia, Turkey, Romania, Austria, Switzerland, Kazakhstan, Britain, Iran, Germany and Ukraine, andtrading companies in Switzerland, Singapore, Vietnam, Nigeria, and other countries.