Page 13 - DMEA Week 50
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DMEA PetroChemiCals DMEA
Turkish firm buys stake in SOCAR’s petchem business
middle east
TURKiSh construction group Tekfen has taken a 10% stake in the petrochemical division of Azerbaijan’s state oil company SOCAR, the latter reported on December 14.
half of the shares sold belonged to SOCAR, while the other half were held by Pasha holding, widely reported to be owned by Azeri President ilham Aliyev’s family. SOCAR did not disclose the transaction’s price.
SOCAR Polymer is a centre piece in Azer- baijan’s drive to diversify its economy away from oil and gas exports. The company launched a 180,000 tonne per year polypropylene plant in Sumgait last year, followed by a 120,000 tpy pol- yethylene plant in January, at a combined cost of $816mn. Both facilities run on hydrocarbon feedstock supplied by a nearby oil refinery.
SOCAR claimed last year that the two facili- ties would generate $6.6bn in revenues, around $2bn in profits and contribute $600mn in tax receipts during the operational life. The bulk of their products are exported, with a large share
going to Turkey.
Tekfen did not comment on the rationale
behind its acquisition at SOCAR Polymer. But the company serves as one of SOCAR’s main contractors, helping it complete a 650-660,000 tpy urea plant in late 2018.
in May, Tekfen and SOCAR signed a mem- orandum on building a second plant in Azer- baijan, capable of producing 730,000 tpy of urea along with 440,000 tpy of carbamide. Tekfen suggested it might serve as an engineering, pro- curement and construction contractor, or even take a stake in the project.
SOCAR is also Turkey’s biggest direct foreign investor, indicative of the two nation’s close polit- ical ties. Besides its involvement in developing the Trans-Anatolian Pipeline (TAnAP) which pumps Azeri gas to Turkey, it also completed the $6bn STAR oil refinery in the southeast of the country and controls a nearby petrochem- ical plant. Tefken played a key role in STAR’s construction.
terminals & shiPPing
Nigeria LNG signs gas delivery deal with Vitol, finds gas for Train 7
afriCa
niGERiA LnG (nLnG) has signed a sale and purchase agreement (SPA) with Vitol, the inter- national commodities trading giant.
Vitol said in a statement last week that the deal covered remarketed volumes of LnG from nLnG’s first, second and third produc- tion trains. The SPA provides for nigeria LnG to supply 500,000 tonnes per year of LnG on a delivered ex-ship basis over a period of 10 years, it explained. Shipments will begin in October 2021, it added.
As of press time, Vitol had not commented on the value of the deal. it did say, though, that the SPA would help nigeria LnG while also helping reduce global CO2 emissions. “The agreement underscores nLnG’s drive ... to deliver LnG on a global scale in a low carbon world where gas/ LnG will continue to be the preferred comple- mentary energy source alongside renewables,” it said.
Reuters, meanwhile, noted that the agree- ment would also help nLnG find a buyer for production from Trains 1, 2 and 3. Several of the supply contracts covering LnG from these trains
– including documents signed with Botas (Tur- key), Total (France), naturgy (Spain) and Galp Energia (Portugal) – are due to expire next year or in 2021, it said. These deals call for nLnG to deliver 2.67mn tonnes per year.
in related news, nLnG also said last week that it had signed agreements with three joint ventures on the procurement of natural gas supplies for the seventh production train of its gas liquefaction plant on Bonny island. it iden- tified the ventures as Eni’s nigerian Agip Oil Co. (nAOC), Shell Petroleum Development Co. (SPDC) and Total E&P nigeria (TEPnG)
The signing of these agreements will help nLnG meet all the conditions for making a final investment decision (FiD) in favour of building Train 7 at its gas liquefaction plant on Bonny island. Mele Kyari, the head of nigerian national Petroleum Corp. (nnPC) stressed this point, saying: “nLnG Train 7 is of utmost significance to the country. Delivery [of] gas to Train 7 is key. Gas supply is one of the critical conditions to be delivered, and we can’t build the plant until we have confirmed gas supply.”
Week 50 19•December•2019 w w w . N E W S B A S E . c o m P13
