ECO-FRIENDLY AND OF HIGH QUALITY

Modern requirements for the oil refining process bring to the fore the environmental impact of both enterprises and their products. In addition, the energy intensity of industrial activity appears to be a strong indication.

Among other developed countries, Azerbaijan is trying to actively participate in solving global problems of minimizing environmental damage during the production and use of petroleum products, although it has only two refineries operating for almost 40 years. And from 2018, SOCAR is ready to start the production of petrol and diesel fuel by the Euro-5 environmental standard at the Baku Heydar Aliyev Refinery.

According to the SOCAR vice-president for refining, David Mammadov, now the depth of refining at Baku refineries exceeds 92 per cent, which is quite a good indicator. "The volume of petrol and diesel fuel produced at our facilities fully meets domestic needs, but, unfortunately, it does not meet current standards," he said. And given the order of President Ilham Aliyev to improve the quality of fuel produced at local plants, SOCAR is currently preparing a programme for the development of the oil and gas refining sectors and petrochemicals, whose main purpose is to bring the production process in line with European standards, minimize operating and energy costs and reduce the environmental impact.

"The reconstruction of the plant for this purpose, according to our consultants, will take 42-48 months. This will ensure the production of petrol and diesel fuel in accordance with Euro-5 standards from 2018 to 2030," Mammadov said.

The vice-president noted that according to the results of reconstruction, the Baku Oil Refinery will process 7.5m tonnes of oil and produce 3m tonnes of diesel, 2.5m tonnes of petrol, 630,000-650,000 tonnes of jet fuel, 350,000 tonnes of bitumen and 100,000 tonnes of liquefied gas per year. "This will completely meet domestic demand for fuel at the time and make it possible to redirect some volumes to export," he said.

Earlier, SOCAR was quoted as saying that the Austrian company EDL/Porner is preparing the feasibility study (FS) of a project to transfer two plants from the Azerneftyag Oil Refinery to the Baku Heydar Aliyev Oil Refinery. The issue is about the transfer of ELOU-AVT-2 and bitumen producing units from Azerneftyag to the Baku Oil Refinery. The company's vice-president, Tofiq Qahramanov, said that here it is planned to carry out reconstruction and stabilization work, so that they can work steadily for 10-12 years until the commissioning of the new complex in 2023. Touching on the Azerneftyag Oil Refinery, Qahramanov noted that it is planned to dismantle it in the next two years.

To improve the environmental situation at the Baku Heydar Aliyev Oil Refinery, it is planned to build a Meroks unit based on the technology of the American company UOP for cleaning liquefied gases and light petrol fractions from sulfureous compounds. Currently, work is underway to design the facility. In addition, UOP is carrying out design work to increase the capacity of the catalytic cracking unit at the Baku Oil Refinery to 3m tonnes per year. On the basis of a feasibility study prepared by Foster Wheller, a project is being implemented at the Baku Oil Refinery to increase the capacity of the ELOU-AVT-6 unit to 7.5m tonnes per year.

It must be noted that the primary oil processing capacity of existing refineries in Azerbaijan is about 10m tonnes, and the maximum amount of processing at a depth of 92 per cent is 7m tonnes. "But with increasing volumes of processing, it will be impossible to keep this depth. Accordingly, to meet the growing needs for light oil products, work have been, and will be, conducted to modernize and upgrade the Heydar Aliyev Refinery," SOCAR President Rovnaq Abdullayev said earlier.

Simultaneously, the country plans to build a new complex for oil and gas processing and petrochemical production (OGPC). Previously, it was assumed that with the completion of this complex, both old refineries on the books of SOCAR will be dismantled. "We need to accelerate the process of creating a new oil refining complex, whose enterprises are scheduled to be commissioned in phases by 2023," Abdullayev said.

According to the SOCAR head, in connection with the creation of a new complex for oil and gas and petrochemical production in Azerbaijan, about 200 configuration options were examined. "The most important thing in this case is to choose the right configuration," Abdullayev says. The OGPC will be located 60 km from Baku and consist of three processing plants and a thermal power plant (TPP). The annual capacity of the refinery at the OGPC will be 8.5-9m tonnes, gas refinery - 12bn cubic metres and that of the petrochemical industry will exceed 1m tonnes. Overall, the project is estimated at 14.4bn dollars and the payback period is 4.5 years.

By the decision of the Cabinet of Ministers of Azerbaijan, the Euro-4 ecological standard is applied to vehicles imported and manufactured in Azerbaijan from 1 April. The country joined the fight against harmful emissions into the atmosphere by vehicles back in 2010 - by introducing the Euro-2 standard on its territory.

Today the problem of restocking quality petrol reserves in Azerbaijan is being solved thanks to its import from abroad, and as state agencies claim, quite successfully. For example, according to the chairman of the State Committee on Standardization, Metrology and Patents of Azerbaijan, Ramiz Hasanov, "petrol imported into Azerbaijan has the highest quality and meets the highest requirements. Importers have been instructed to ensure that fuel imported into the country meets the Euro-5 environmental standard".

Here we should recall that earlier the prices of AI-92 and AI-95 petrol made in the country were regulated by the Tariff (Price) Council. But after the production of AI-95 petrol was stopped, its import into the country began. In parallel, the Cabinet of Ministers lowered the rate of customs duties and excise taxes on petrol of high environmental standards, thus making it possible to import Premium Euro-95 and Super Euro-98 petrol at low prices and sell them at market prices. After the start of the import of 95 octane petrol, the price of this fuel increased from 0.8 (set by the Tariff Council on domestically produced petrol AI-95) to 0.93 manats per litre. In turn, the cost of 98 octane petrol fell from 1.5 to 1.03 manats per litre.

The mobilization of existing internal resources and the creation of new oil refineries will finally allow local consumers to solve the problem of automobile fuel supplies in a comprehensive and beneficial way.