Page 8 - DMEA week 23

DMEA sUPPLy DMEA
SOCAR to substitute Iranian feedstock for Turkish refinery
middLe east
IN an e ort to avoid falling foul of US sanctions, Azerbaijan’s national oil company SOCAR is planning to stop importing crude from Iran for processing at the SOCAR Turkey Aegean Re n- ery (STAR).
e head of SOCAR Turkey Zaur Gakhra- manov was quoted by Asharq al-Awsat as saying that the company would replace Iranian oil with that from Iraq following the ending of a sanc- tions waiver in early May. he noted: “Iraqi oil will be delivered from Basra.”
STAR was inaugurated in October 2018 by Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Azerbaijani counterpart Ilham Aliyev.
e re nery’s nal units were brought into operation in March, and it is anticipated reaching a production capacity of 160,700 bpd of crude oil by the end of 2019.
At full capacity the plant will re ner 214,000 bpd of crude to produce 4.8 million tpy of diesel, 1.6 million tpy of light naphtha, 1.6 million tpy of jet fuel, 700,000 tpy of petroleum coke, 480,000 tpy of reformate, 420,000 tpy of mixed xylenes,
320,000 tpy of LPG and 160,000 tpy of sulphur. Azerbaijan’s energy minister Parviz Shah- bazov met his Russian counterpart Alexan- der Novak in Baku on April 8, agreeing upon an MoU for strengthen and improve bilateral co-operation and discussing the provision of
feedstock for STAR.
eir meeting took place in anticipation of
the meeting between the OPEC and non-OPEC Ministerial Monitoring Committee.
Aside from STAR, SOCAR is looking to start construction of a new petrochemical complex in Turkey in 2019, increasing its investments in the country to US$19.5 billion.
In January last year, Turkish petrochemical rm Petkim bought a 30% stake in STAR for US$720 million.
Meanwhile, Gakhramanov was quoted by Reuters as saying at the end of May that SOCAR intends to list its Turkish arm on the London, hong Kong and Istanbul stock exchanges in 2021, noting that Citigroup, JP Morgan and McKinsey would all be involved in the IPO.™
inVestment
Turkey set for 1% contraction in 2019 GDP: World Bank
middLe east
ThE World Bank now sees Turkey’s economy contracting 1% in 2019, according to the June issue of its twice-yearly Global Economic Pros- pects report released on May 4.
e international nancial institution revised down its expectation by 2.6pp from the assess- ment given in the January issue of the report. Turkey’s debt-fuelled economy has su ered a painful hard landing, considering the 7.4% ‘warp drive’ expansion it experienced in 2017 and 2.6% growth rate (estimated by the World Bank, pos- sibly subject to later revision) posted in 2018. In 2020, Turkish growth will come in at 3%, if the World Bank’s latest forecasting for 2020 proves correct.
Turkey technically exited recession in Q1 this year—its seasonally and calendar-adjusted GDP grew by 1.3% q/q in the quarter following the contractions seen in the previous three quarters, statistical institute TUIK said on May 31. how- ever, there are fears that the recovery was driven
by a pre-local elections credit expansion and that Turkey could dip back into recession later this year.
“Subdued investment”
In its latest Global Economic Prospects report, entitled “heightened tensions, subdued invest- ment”, the World Bank warned: “Global growth has continued to soften this year. Subdued investment in emerging market and developing economies (EMDEs) is dampening potential growth prospects. Risks to the outlook remain rmly on the downside, including the possibility of escalating trade tensions.
“Another concern is rising debt, which may make it di cult for EMDEs to respond to adverse developments and to nance growth-en- hancing investments. Reforms to boost private investment and productivity growth are needed, particularly in low-income countries, which face more signi cant challenges today than they did
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w w w . N E W S B A S E . c o m Week 23 13•June•2019