SOCAR seeks to up investing in projects in Turkey

The State Oil Company of Azerbaijan (SOCAR) intends to invest about $10 billion in projects in Turkey in the next seven or eight years, vice president on economic issues Suleyman Gasimov said during the 19th international conference on Caspian Oil and Gas, SOCAR said on Thursday.

"In view of the TANAP construction project, the total amount of investments in Turkey may exceed $17 billion," Gasimov said.

Azerbaijan and Turkey signed a memorandum of understanding to establish the consortium that will build a gas pipeline to supply gas from Shah Deniz gas field to Europe through Turkey. BOTAS has a 20 per cent stake in TANAP, while SOCAR holds 80 per cent in the project.

The initial capacity of the pipeline will be 16 billion cubic meters. Some six billion cubic meters of the volume will be supplied to Turkey, while the rest will be transported to Europe.
At present, Azerbaijan is choosing a route for gas exports to Europe via Turkey. Azerbaijan is exporting gas to Turkey via the South Caucasus gas pipeline.

The alliance between SOCAR and Turcas Petrol , Injaz projects resulted in them winning a tender in 2008 to buy a 51 per cent stake in various chemical projects worth $2.04 billion. Now Turkey imports 70 to 75 per cent of its chemical products. Investments in the development of Petkim will reduce that figure by 30 per cent.

Previously on March 30, SOCAR Turkey Enerji A.S and SOCAR International DMCC OGG acquired a 10.32 per cent stake in Petkim, increasing the stake up to 61.32 per cent.
Petkim Petrokimya Holding manufactures plastic packages, fabric, PVC, detergents, being the only Turkish producer of such products, a quarter of which the company exports.


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