SOCAR Turkey inks US$3.29 bln financing deal for Star refinery

02-Jun-14

Azeri state oil company SOCAR has signed a US$3.29 bln financing deal with 23 banks and export credit agencies for the construction of a refinery on Turkey's Aegean coast, as per Reuters. Around US$2.7 bln of the financing has a maturity of 18 years, while US$600 mln has a maturity of 15 years. SOCAR will use $2 bln of its own equity for the project but has tapped the markets for funding for the rest. SOCAR is building the US$5.5 bln Star refinery to supply feedstock to petrochemicals maker Petkim, which will help cut Turkey's dependence on imported refined oil products. To be built with annual capacity of 10 mln tons, comprising of 1.6 mln tons of naphtha which couldto feed the Petkim plant, as well as diesel, jet fuel and LPG. It signed a US$3.46 bln engineering procurement and construction contract in May last year with a consortium comprising Tecnicas Reunidas, Saipem, GS Engineering & Construction and Itochu Corp.