SOCAR HQ held a ceremony to sign licensing and design agreements for the Fluid Catalytic Cracking (FCC) unit between the Heydar Aliyev Oil Refinery (HAOR) and Axens (Rueil-Malmaison, France) as part of the HAOR Modernization and Reconstruction Project. The ceremony was attended by SOCAR President Rovnag Abdullayev, Axens CEO Jean Sentenac and other officials.
“The HAOR Reconstruction and Modernization Project is progressing successfully. The project involves the design and construction of a number of new units at the refinery. In this respect, substantial work has been undertaken to license and implement design services for these units. Based on the research and detailed evaluation of the FCC unit, the French company Axens has been selected as the licensor. Under the agreements signed today, the preparation of the process design package for the unit will commence shortly. On this occasion, I congratulate Axens’s leadership and wish our partners every success in their work,” said Rovnag Abdullayev, SOCAR President.
“We are pleased to expand our cooperation with SOCAR. In this context, our selection as the licensor for building a new unit is a high trust placed in our company, and we express our profound appreciation to SOCAR’s leadership for this trust. We will do our best to complete design work in a short period of time with high quality. We believe that once the new FCC plant is built, the refinery will operate in a more sustainable and efficient manner,” added Jean Sentenac, Axens CEO.
A signing ceremony was eventually held with the parties participating. The documents were signed by Bakhtiyar Mammadov, SOCAR HAOR Director and Fabien Lundy, Axens Process Licensing Global Commercial Director. It is worth noting that SOCAR and Axens have a long-term co-operation. At present, the Diesel Hydrotreatment, Gasoline Hydrotreatment and C4 (butane-butylene) hydrogenation units as part of the Heydar Aliyev Oil Refinery Reconstruction Project, as well as the C3 (propane-propylene) hydrogenation unit as part of the reconstruction works carried out at Azerkimya PU, the naphtha hydrotreatment, diesel hydrotreatment and kerosene hydrotreatment units at the STAR refinery built in Turkey are licensed by Axens.
The cooperation between SOCAR and Axens encompasses the training of engineers either in IFP School or in Axens in order to contribute to the successful implementation of the Heydar Aliyev Oil Refinery modernization projects including the operation of the licensed process units. These trainings aims also at developing skills in energy efficiency and sustainability. Some time ago, the AR-GE Research Centre of SOCAR Turkey, Axens and IFPEN started jointly to expand AR-GE Research capabilities, and identify subjects of common interest.