Page 14 - FSUOGM Week 23
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FSUOGM PROJECTS & COMPANIES FSUOGM
SOCAR to substitute Iranian oil for Turkish refinery
TURKEY
IN an e ort to avoid falling foul of US sanctions, Azerbaijan’s SOCAR is planning to stop import- ing crude from Iran for processing at the SOCAR Turkey Aegean Re nery (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 reach- ing 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.
Russia hands new Sakhalin block to Gazprom
RUSSIA
RUSSIA’S state gas producer Gazprom is report- edly set to secure a subsoil licence for an oil and gas block in the Sea of Okhotsk.
Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has signed a decree awarding Gazprom with exploration and production rights to the Cen- tral-Pogranichny area, sources told Kommersant last week.
Central-Pogranichny once formed part of the now-abandoned Sakhalin-6 project. Sakhalin-6 proposed the development of acreage off the eastern shore of Sakhalin Island and is believed to contain up to 600 million tonnes (4.4 billion barrels) of oil and 190 bcm of natural gas.
Rosne sought to develop Sakhalin-6 in the early 2000s in a partnership with Petrosakh, then controlled by private investment fund Alfa Eco. But the state oil concern withdrew from the project in 2003, after determining that it was unfeasible. Petrosakh was later acquired by UK-registered Urals Energy, which surren- dered rights to the block a er failing to bring in a partner.
Gazprom has not confirmed receiving rights to Central-Pogranichny, and details
on the block’s size and possible resources are unavailable.
Any future discoveries at Central-Pogran- ichny could potentially be tied with Gazprom’s other projects in the area.
The Sakhalin-6 area notably borders the Kirinsky block, where Gazprom is developing the Kirinskoye, South-Kirinskoye, South-Lun- skoye and Mynginskoye gas elds as part of its Sakhalin-3 enterprise. e company’s oil arm Gazprom Ne also operates the nearby Ayashky block, where the recent Neptune and Triton oil discoveries were made.
Russia imposed a moratorium on the issue of o shore licences in the Arctic in 2016, a er low oil prices le many operators unable to ful l obligations at their existing permits. But this ban does not extend to the Sea of Okhotsk.
Oil production in the Sakhalin area climbed by 10.9% year on year in the rst quarter of 2019, to 5.2 million tonnes (424,000 bpd), while gas extraction dipped 1.9% to 8.7 bcm. e bulk of current output comes from the Sakhalin-1 and Sakhalin-2 projects, operated by Rosne and Gazprom respectively.
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w w w . N E W S B A S E . c o m Week 23 12•June•2019
