SOCAR Polymer LLC, a subsidiary of state-owned State Oil Co. of Azerbaijan Republic (SOCAR), has started up a high-density polyethylene (HDPE) plant in the Sumgait Chemical Industrial Park (SCIP) about 30 km north of Baku (OGJ Online, Feb. 5, 2016).
The 120,000-tonne/year HDPE plant, which officially began operating on Feb. 18, will produce four varieties of HDPE to meet Azerbaijan’s demand, with the remaining 75% of product manufactured at the plant to be exported to Turkey and Europe, SOCAR said.
Startup of the HDPE plant—Azerbaijan’s first—follows commissioning of the country’s first polypropylene (PP) plant at SCIP in July 2018, which is slated to produce 184,000 tpy of 10 varieties of PP, the operator confirmed (OGJ Online, July 18, 2018).
The PP plant delivered its first export product to Turkey in October 2018, SOCAR added.
During their operational lifetime, SOCAR said it expects the two plants to generate $6.6 billion in revenues, 30% of which will be the company’s net profit. Additionally, SOCAR Polymer will pay a total of $600 million taxes to the state budget.
Founded in 2013 to accelerate development of Azerbaijan’s chemical industry, SOCAR Polymer is the first petrochemical company in Azerbaijan based on a public-private partnership, shareholders of which include SOCAR 52.2%, Vitol Group 19%, Pasha Holding LLC 9.9%, Ecoland 9.8%, Polymer Investments 5%, and AKKIK 4.1%.
