Azerbaijan’s state oil company Socar and Italy-based KT-Kinetics Technology have signed an agreement on licensing the construction of a new unit for removing sulphur, as part of modernisation of the Heydar Aliyev Baku Oil Refinery.
The modernisation is estimated to involve an investment of about $1bn.
Socar president Rovnag Abdullayev said that reconstruction of the refinery is an important project to be carried out by the company.
As part of the project, old refinery units will be upgraded and new units would be constructed to increase the refinery’s capacity from the existing six million tonnes (mt) to 7.5mt.
The modernisation will increase catalytic cracking unit’s capacity from 2mt to 2.5mt per year in addition to production of Euro 5 oil products.
Earlier, the company signed contracts with Austria-based Pörner Group, French company Axens and US UOP for the refinery modernisation.
The Heydar refinery is processing different petroleum products, including automotive gasoline, aviation kerosene, diesel fuel, black oil, petroleum coke, and others.
Heydar houses ED-AV-6 unit for initial oil refining, a catalytic reforming unit, a gradual coking unit as well as a catalytic cracker.
The refinery produced 43,000t of A-98 gasoline, 1,185,700t of A-92 gasoline, 19,700t of A-80 gasoline in 2010.
During that period, it also produced 600,400t of kerosene, 2,420,300t of diesel fuel, 214,000t of liquid gas, 267,500t of coke, and 220,600t of furnace oil.
Image: Socar and Italy-based KT-Kinetics Technology signing agreement for Heydar Aliyev Baku Oil Refinery modernisation. Photo: courtesy of State Oil Company of the Azerbaijan Republic.
