SOCAR Polymer LLC, the newly-formed plastics subsidiary of the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan Republic (SOCAR), will open a planned 200,000 metric tons per year polypropylene plant towards the end of 2016.
The launch of this PP unit is the first of two polymer lines planned for SOCAR's newly created Sumgayit Chemical Industry Park (SKSP) petrochemicals zone close to Azerbaijan's capital Baku.
The group expects that a 100,000 metric tons per year low density polyethylene, also planned by SOCAR Polymer is scheduled to go on stream at the same Caspian Sea location some months later than the PP start up, according to Mukhtar Babayev, head of the group's Azerkimya production subsidiary.
The group will maintain its 51 percent stake in the SOCAR Polymer project while offering the remaining shares to privately owned investing companies. SOCAR Polymer was created with total authorized capital of around 41 million euros ($51.7 million) for the implementation of the scheme.
Azerkimya plans a longer term project to establish a bigger 13 billion euro ($16.4 billion) oil, gas and petrochemicals complex near Baku with butadiene, PE and PP production. This will include 670,000 metrics tons per year PE production and another 550,000 tonnes per year PP plant and will launch in 2020.