LUKOIL, SOCAR plan to jointly invest in Turkey

By Azernews

By Sara Israfilbayova

Azerbaijan’s energy giant SOCAR and Russia’s LUKOIL are considering the possibility of joint acquisition of new assets in the fuel market of Turkey.

The Turkish retail fuel market remains attractive for LUKOIL, which actively promotes its interests in this sector of the Turkish economy, Anadolu Agency quoted Vadim Vorobiev, LUKOIL’s senior Vice President for sales and supplies, as saying.

Vorobiev told a group of Turkish journalists in Moscow that the Russian company has already allocated up to $1 billion for this purpose, adding that Turkey’s petroleum products market is of strategic importance to LUKOIL.

 “Our company is studying opportunities to expand its share in the Turkish market. We discussed with SOCAR representatives the issue of acquiring the assets of third companies in the Turkish market. A concrete decision on this issue hasn’t been made yet,” he added.

Stressing that LUKOIL occupies 5-6 percent of the retail fuel market of Turkey, Vadim Vorobiev noted that in 2000-2010 it was more profitable to work in the Turkish market than in Europe.

Further, touching upon the crisis on the world energy market the LUKOIL official stressed that they don’t plan to expand activities in Turkey in the next 3-4 years due the crisis, nevertheless expressed readiness to cooperate with other companies operating on the Turkish market on the issue of distributors’ network.

Lukoil is one of Russia's largest oil companies and one of the largest global producers of oil.

LUKOIL owns a 10-percent stake in the consortium for the development of the giant Shah Deniz gas field in Azerbaijan.

SOCAR began its activity in Turkey after privatization of Petkim Holding in 2008 and has been operating under brand name of SOCAR Turkey. The company was acquired by SOCAR as a result of a tender of privatization.

Petkim shareholders include SOCAR Turkey Petrokimya A.?. with a share of 51 percent, SOCAR Turkey Energy with 1.32 percent and 47.68 percent within free float.

It is expected that in 2018, the consolidated turnover of SOCAR Turkey Enerji will reach $15 billion and the company will become the second biggest industrial company in Turkey (the first is Koç Holding) with 5,000 employees and export potential of $3 billion. It sets a goal to become the biggest industrial company of Turkey by 2023.

SOCAR is 100 percent owned by the government of Azerbaijan. SOCAR participates in joint ventures (including ventures in Georgia and Turkey), consortia, and operating companies established with SOCAR’s participation.