On February 18, The State Oil Company of Azerbaijan Republic (SOCAR; www.socar.az) officially opened the high-density polyethylene (HDPE) plant within SOCAR Polymer’s project in the Sumgayit Chemical Industry Park. The opening ceremony was attended by the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev, SOCAR senior officials and representatives of the companies involved in the construction of SOCAR Polymer plants.
According to preliminary plans, SOCAR Polymer plants will produce 184,000 metric tons of 10 varieties of polypropylene and 120,000 metric tons of 4 high-density polyethylene varieties. During the operation period, the plants are expected to bring $6.6 billion revenues, 30 percent of which will be the company’s net profit. In addition, SOCAR Polymer is expected to pay a total of $600 million taxes to the state budget. The high-density polyethylene is still an imported product in the country, but now SOCAR’s new industrial complex will fully meet the demand of the domestic market and export the remaining 75% of the product to the Turkish and European markets.
SOCAR Polymer is the first petrochemical company in Azerbaijan based on a public-private partnership. Shareholders of SOCAR Polymer are SOCAR (52.2%), Vitol (19%), Pasha Holding (9,9%), Ecoland (9.8%), Polymer Investments (5%) and AKKIK (4.1%). The project was delivered in cooperation with well-known brands such as Maire Tecnimont, FLUOR, LyondellBasell, INEOS, Golder Associates. About 60% of the project cost was paid by the loans of Russian Gazprombank.