Socar to Build Refinery, LNG, Chemical Plants

Azeri state energy company Socar said it planned to start construction of a new oil refinery, gas liquefaction plant and a chemical plant in the first quarter of 2013 in a project worth up to $14 billion.

"A preliminary cost of this complex will be about $14 billion ... The Azeri state oil fund as well as eximbanks (export-import banks) of those countries where we will be buying equipment will be financing this project," Socar President Rovnag Abdullayev told journalists on Tuesday.

He added that Socar would act as a main shareholder in the project.

The complex is designed to include an oil refinery with annual capacity of 10 million tons, a plant to produce liquefied natural gas (LNG) with an annual capacity of up to 15 billion cubic meters of gas, and a chemical plant, Socar Vice President Tofik Gakhramanov told journalists.

Gakhramanov said that construction of the plants would be completed by 2020.