The gas refining and petrochemical plants will be put into operation in Azerbaijan in early 2020 and end 2020 as a part of the new complex of oil and gas refining and manufacture of petrochemical products (OGPC), Orkhan Jafarov, chief of OGPC Department for Organization and Control, said at the conference of Baku Oil & Gas Week in Baku yesterday.
It was earlier planned that the objects will be put into operation at the end of 2018. Before that SOCAR administration said the term of launching of a new oil refinery as a part of OGPC, which was scheduled for 2023-2025, is postponed. Now the new oil refinery is planned to be put into operation no earlier, than 2030, because the new installations will be built at the Heydar Aliyev oil refinery.
SOCAR’s representative said that gas from the Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli, Umid and other fields, which are being developed by SOCAR independently, will be the raw material for the gas refining plant.
Capacity of the plant will be 12 billion cub.m. a year. This will allow to fully satisfying the needs of population and manufactures in purified natural gas.
The plant manufacturing polyethylene with the capacity of 800,000 tons and the plant for manufacture of polypropylene with the capacity of 300,000 tons will be the next one.
The products, which will be manufactured at the petrochemical plant will be used to satisfy needs of the country as well as exported, said Jafarov.
Total cost of the first phase of the project is estimated at $7 billion (with credit interest rate $8.45 billion). The term of the project recoupment is 4-5 years. 30% of the project will be implemented at the expense of the state funds (the amount will be allotted in parts within 5 years) and 70% at the expense of the loans.
OGPC will be located 60 km away from Baku and consist of three refining enterprises (gas refining, gas chemical and oil refining) and thermal power station.
According to Turan, SOCAR will start construction of the gas refinery in 2016.