Azerbaijan Postpones Construction of Oil & Gas, Chemical Plant

Azeri state energy company SOCAR has delayed the completion of a major plant to process oil, gas and petrochemicals worth up to $16.5 billion near the capital Baku by four years until 2030 due to a lack of funds.

SOCAR President Rovnag Abdullayev told reporters that the construction of a gas processing plant and a petrochemicals plant worth $8.45 billion was now due to be completed by 2020 instead of 2017, while an oil refinery worth $8 billion was expected to be completed by 2030 and not 2026.

The facility will be built 60 kilometres south of Baku, at Sangachal, where Azerbaijan's main oil and gas pipelines reach the Caspian Sea.

Abdullayev added that SOCAR planned to invest 1 billion manats ($1.27 billion) of its own into the Baku Oil Refinery's modernisation.

SOCAR told Reuters earlier this year that the company planned to attract 70 percent of the funds for the project from investment firms and private companies, while the rest would be financed by Azerbaijan's $34-billion state oil fund.

(www.downstreamtoday.com Edited by Topco)