Baku, Azerbaijan, Aug. 30

By Kamala Mammadli - Trend:

Azerbaijan’s state-owned company SOCAR plans to fully complete the modernization and reconstruction of Heydar Aliyev Baku Oil Refinery (BOR) by late 2024 - early 2025, and its annual processing capacity will reach 7.5 million tons in 2025, stated project manager Nihal Allahverdiyev, Trend reports from a press tour arranged at the refinery.

By the beginning of 2025, 24 units that meet modern requirements will operate at the enterprise. As of now, two of these units have already been commissioned, while 15 are still under construction. The construction of the remaining seven units is set for later dates.

According to Allahverdiyev, currently there are five units operating at the plant.

"The first unit to be commissioned is the primary oil refining unit, that is ELOU/electric desalting unit. This will allow the plant to increase the processing of raw materials up to 7.5 million tons. The remaining six units will be commissioned by late 2024 - early 2025," Allahverdiyev said.

The total reconstruction budget is currently estimated at $2.2 billion.

"Since it was previously planned to upgrade only the units, calculations for new constructions were not taken into account. Therefore, there may be adjustments which we will announce in 2021," Allahverdiyev said.

According to the project manager, it was initially envisaged to carry out the reconstruction of six units including ELOU-AVT-6, catalytic cracking, catalytic reforming, naphtha hydrotreating, vacuum gas oil hydrotreating and amine regeneration unit.

"An analysis of the results of the technical audit of the TR company in October last year revealed that the units to be reconstructed are in much worse condition than was previously thought. As a result, the amount of work to be carried out increased and was equated to the cost of building new installations," Allahverdiyev stated.

In general, 53 percent of the work for the modernization project has been completed. Progress in work on designing has been completed by 90 percent, on procurement - by 72 percent, and on construction - by 17 percent.