Turkey's Petkim to ready $3.5 billion refinery project by 2014

As the company received the long-awaited approval of the Environmental Impact Assessment Report, it sped up its activities for the refinery project to be established on a land of 13,750 acres. Engineering and detailed studies will be conducted this year for the refinery, referred to as the largest investment of the last 40 years. With an investment cost of around $3.5 billion, the refinery is expected to be complete by 2014.

A significant phase in the project of SOCAR & Turcas Refining has been completed and the Ministry of Environment and Forestry has approved the Environmental Impact Assessment Report, said Kenan Yavuz, chief executive officer of SOCAR & Turcas Energy and board member of Petkim.

Noting that prior to the privatization, SOCAR & Turcas had a project to build a refinery in Ceyhan, said Yavuz. “We have delayed this project, and prioritized the refinery to be built on Petkim’s land. It is a very important development that we have obtained the Environmental Impact Assessment Report. We will conduct engineering and detailed studies this year. Construction is the easiest part. We want to ready the project by the beginning of 2014.”

The refinery is expected to process around 10 million tons of crude oil annually, providing additional employment for approximately 1,500 to 2,000 people.

Regarding the technical details of the investment, Yavuz said, "The fact that the refinery is built on Petkim land [with infrastructure] will bring an advantage of around 30 percent in investment cost. This investment will bring raw material security and enable the common use of the existing infrastructure and form refinery-petrochemicals integration. The establishment of an oil refinery constitutes the first step to be taken on the path of our goal to make Petkim a regional power.”

Following SOCAR & Turcas’ takeover of Petkim on May 30, 2008, the firm faced turmoil, Yavuz said.

“Feeling the signals of the crisis, Petkim launched crisis management on Sept. 9, 2008. We pursued first sale and then production strategy. We minimized our stocks rapidly. Undergoing a controlled period during the final quarter of 2008, we have become Europe’s most rapid petrochemicals firms to overcome the crisis.”

/Hurriyet Daily News/