Baku refinery revamp moves forward

BAKU, November 26, 2015 – Azerbaijan’s state oil company SOCAR announced on Wednesday that its joint venture, SOCAR Foster Wheeler, would complete the pre-front-end engineering and design work on the Heydar Aliyev Baku Oil Refinery upgrade.

The Baku refinery’s modernisation project is scheduled for completion in 2018 following an investment of around $1.27 billion.

It will expand the plant’s capacity from 6 million to 7.5 million tonnes per year.

In January, SOCAR said it would decommission the country’s Azneftyag refinery and merge its operations with the Baku plant.

The Heydar Aliyev Baku Oil Refinery’s upgrade project was launched in 2011. It involves the construction of five to six new units and the modernisation of ageing machinery including the fluid catalytic cracking and crude topping units.

Established during the Soviet era in 1953, the Heydar Aliyev Baku Oil Refinery is Azerbaijan’s oldest and largest refinery. It processes 21 out of the 24 types of crude oil the country produces, and fully supplies every oil product for which there is a national demand. The refinery exports about 45 percent of its products.

SOCAR Foster Wheeler Engineering was established in 2012 as a joint venture between SOCAR and Foster Wheeler with the main purpose of developing downstream engineering know-how and expertise in Azerbaijan.

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