Robert Brelsford
Downstream Technology Editor
State Oil Co. of Azerbaijan Republic (SOCAR) subsidiary SOCAR GPC has let a contract to Univation Technologies LLC, Houston, to provide technology licensing and associated design work for a 600,000-tonne/year polyethylene (PE) plant at SOCAR GPC's proposed grassroots gas processing and petrochemical complex to be built in Garadagh, Azerbaijan, 15 km south of Baku (OGJ Online, Jan. 18, 2017).
Univation will deliver its proprietary UNIPOL PE process technology to enable the new plant to shift between production of high-density PE (HDPE) and linear low-density PE (LLDPE) based on customers' evolving needs as well as underlying market opportunities, Univation and SOCAR GPC jointly said.
In addition to licensing UNIPOL PE process technology, Univation will provide its proprietary XCAT metallocene PE technology, which SOCAR GPC will use to produce advanced metallocene film structures suitable for food packaging, stretch wrap, heavy-duty sacks, and specialized multilayer applications, Univation said.
In line with a 2016 agreement between Univation and Linde AG, Munich, to partner on PE plant and cracker integration projects, Linde Engineering will complete the basic engineering design package for the Garadagh PE plant.
Univation revealed neither the value nor duration of the overall licensing and engineering contract package.
Project overview
Launched in late 2016 as part of SOCAR's ongoing plan to maximize integration of Azerbaijan's upstream-midstream-downstream oil and gas value chain, the new gas processing and petrochemicals complex at Garadagh intends to help eliminate feedstock supply risks by processing natural and associated gases delivered from local production fields into purified gas for domestic end users, as well into feedstock for production of high-quality polymers for export destinations in Turkey, the European Union, China, and elsewhere, according to SOCAR GPC (OGJ Online, Jan. 5, 2017).
Alongside the 600,000-tpy HDPE-LLDPE swing plant, the integrated complex at Garadagh will include the following:
• A 10-billion cu m/year single-train gas processing plant.
• A steam cracker equipped to produce 610,000 tpy of ethylene and 120,000 tpy of propylene, the latter of which will be delivered about 30 km north of Baku to SOCAR Polymer LLC's operations at Sumgait for production of polypropylene.
• Other yet-to-be-identified units.
Scheduled to take final investment decision on the project in the next 15-18 months, SOCAR GPC said, if approved, the complex would take 48 months to build for a targeted startup of all units some time in 2022.
