Azerbaijan’s state-owned energy group SOCAR (State Oil Company of Azerbaijan Republic) has begun to export petroleum products such as middle distillate and fuel oil cargoes from its Aegean refinery project (STAR) in İzmir's Aliağa district (Turkey). The 200,000 bbl/d (10 Mt/year) project was commissioned in 2018; it has now reached half of its planned processing capacity and will reach full operational capacity by April 2019.
The STAR refinery is fully owned by SOCAR, since the group has acquired the 18.5% held indirectly by Turcas Petrol. The project processes a range of different crude oils, including Urals, Azeri Light and Kirkuk. It produces low-sulfur diesel (4.5 Mt/year) for the adjacent Petkim petrochemical plant, naphtha (1.6 Mt/year) and 1.6 Mt/year of jet fuel.
The project is expected to reduce Turkey's trade deficit by around US$1.5bn/year (€1.3bn/year), cutting the import rate of diesel below 40%, that of LPG to 70% (from 80%) and eliminating needs for jet fuel imports.
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