SOCAR to purchase OMV assets in Turkey

By Azernews

By Nigar Abbasova

Azerbaijan’s state energy giant SOCAR, which has a lion’s share in the total volume of investments made by Azerbaijan in Turkey, reached an agreement on the purchase of one of the assets belonging to Austrian oil group OMV in Turkey.

SOCAR Turkey Energy Director General Zaur Gahramanov said that the agreement envisages purchase of an OMV Petrol Ofisi [a leading company in the Turkish oil products retail and wholesale market] terminal located in Izmir, stressing that after the purchase of the terminal, investments of SOCAR in Turkey will reach the amount $18 billion.

The deal is expected to be signed by late 2016.

Capacity of the terminal stands at 200,000 cubic meters, while it may be further increased up to 700,000 cubic meters. Gahramanov said that the terminal can also contain some 45,000 cubic meters of liquefied gas, while this figure can also be increased.

In early 2016 Austrian company announced its intention to sell the whole packet of shares of OMV Petrol Ofisi A.S. to optimize its own costs. Within the scope of its strategy the company is intended to be focused on the extractive enterprises as well as on the oil processing activities.

In this regard OMV has launched the selling process of 100 percent of OMV Petrol Ofisi A.S, which possesses one of the largest refueling station networks in Turkey. The company operates 1,785 refueling station throughout Turkey and owns the country’s largest fuel storage and logistics business.

Gahramanov earlier said SOCAR has an interest in the assets as the company seeks to create a distribution network pegged to the Star Petroleum refinery.  SOCAR president Rovnag Abdullayev previously confirmed the company’s interest in the purchase of the filling station assets of Austrian OMV in Turkey.

With its headquarters in Vienna OMV is one of Austria’s largest industrial companies. The company is engaged in the upstream business which includes exploration and production as well as downstream which concerns refining, marketing as well as gas and power.