China Eyes Azerbaijan Petchems Project

Senior executives from the oil and finance sectors in Azerbaijan and China signed May 14 a memorandum of understanding regarding investment in Socar’s gas petrochemicals complex.

Socar CEO Rovnag Abdullaev (pictured below) and the chairmen of China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) Wang Yulin and China Development Bank Hu Huaban were attending the international forum One Belt - One Way that started that day in Beijing.

Socar subsidiary GPC was established to develop, build, finance and operate a new petrochemical and gas processing complex in Garadagh, 15 km south of Baku.

The capacity of the complex will be about 10bn m³/yr. The enterprise will also include a steam cracker with a capacity of 570,000 metric tons/yr of ethylene and 120,000 mt/yr of propylene; a LLDPE / HDPE polymerisation unit with a capacity of about 570,000 mt/yr of high-density polyethylene and linear low density polyethylene; and other related infrastructure.

The complex is planned to be commissioned in 2022 at a cost estimated at $4bn.

Azerbaijan desk