SOCAR to complete fertiliser, chemical plants in 2016

Azerbaijan plans to complete the construction of a fertiliser plant with an annual capacity 700,000 tonnes of carbamide as well as chemical plants by the end of 2016, the head of Azerkhimia state company said.
Mukhtar Babayev told Reuters the carbamide plant would be ready for operation at the end of the first quarter of 2017.
He said the plant, costing around 500 million euros and to be financed from the state budget, would include sections for the production of carbamide, also known as urea, and ammonia.
“We will satisfy domestic demand in fertilisers and export to the countries of the region as well as to the world markets via Black Sea ports in Georgia,” Babayev said.
Samsung Engineering is the general contractor for the project.
Azerbaijan was planning to build another fertiliser plant with the same capacity in neighbouring Georgia, but Babayev said the project was being reviewed and the final decision would be made later.
“Some corrections have been made and we are discussing details of this project,” Babayev said.
He said that apart from the production of fertilisers, Azerbaijan planned to build facilities for production of polypropylene and polythene at a chemical industrial park in the city of Sumgait, some 19 miles outside the capital Baku.
The polypropylene plant, with an annual capacity of 150,000 tonnes, was expected to start production at the end of 2016, while the polythene plant, with an annual capacity of 100,000 tonnes, would be ready in the beginning of 2017.
Azerkhimia, a part of Azeri state energy company SOCAR, produced 68,100 tonnes of polythene, 39,600 tonnes of polypropylene and other chemical products in the first nine months of this year. Total production of all chemical products rose to 271,896 tonnes in January-September from 231,524 tonnes in the same period last year.
The company exports its products via Georgian Black Sea port of Poti to neighbouring Turkey and Georgia, European countries as well as the United States and countries in Asia.