Petrol consumption has been growing in Azerbaijan significantly. If the situation continues, by 2017 our capacities will be limited and we will not be able to ensure further growth of consumption. For this reason we need to upgrade the refineries, said David Mammadov, SOCAR Vice President for Refining.
The Heydar Aliyev oil refinery in Baku is the only oil refinery in Azerbaijan manufacturing fuel and from January 1, 2015 Azerneftyag has joined it, which specializes in manufacture of oils and lubricants.
Vice President said that at present the volume of oil refining in Azerbaijan is over 6.5 million tons a year. Petrol production totals 1.4 million tons. Almost the entire volume of petrol is consumed by the local market.
Since April 2014 SOCAR does not longer export petrol.
“It is not advantageous for us to export petrol, because, on the one hand, quality of petrol made in our country is not very high, it is up to the Euro-2 standard, and on the other hand, its price at the local market is rather high,” explained SOCAR Vice President.
He said at present only Ai-92 petrol is made in the country and Ai-95 and Ai-98 petrol is imported by SOCAR and Azpetrol company.
“In the future we plan to resume AI-95 petrol manufacture. The plan of the Heydar Aliyev oil refinery reconstruction has been worked out, according to which in 2018 Azerbaijan will make Ai-92 and Ai-95 petrol up to Euro-5 standards,” added Mammadov.
* Since the beginning of December 2013 in Azerbaijan, the price of 1 liter of petrol AI-92 is 0,7 AZN (at the current rate of $0.74).
