New owners of Turkey's Petkim aim to double output

Found on The Guardian

ISTANBUL, Dec 10 (Reuters) - The new owners of Turkish petrochemical company Petkim aim to invest $2 billion to double capacity by 2015, Batu Aksoy, a board member at consortim member Turcas said on Monday.

Aksoy told a news conference that revenues from the petrochemical business would rise to $4 billion that year from $1.5 billion and production would rise to 6.4 million tonnes a year from a current 3.2 million tonnes.

Turkey's Turcas, in a consortium with Azeri energy company Socar and Saudi Arabia-based Injaz, has bought a controlling stake Petkim in a privatisation tender for $2.04 billion, although the deal is being challenged in court.

Meanwhile, Socar's chairman Rovnag Abdullayev said on Monday it would invest $10 billion in an oil refinery planned for Ceyhan on the Turkish Mediterranean as well as on petrochemical facilities.
Socar is building the Ceyhan refinery with Turcas, and Turcas Chairman Erdal Aksoy said it expected the refinery to have an initial annual capacity of 10 million tonnes a year, rising to 15 million tonnes once a petrochemical plant is added.

At least two other refineries are planned for Ceyhan, where two pipelines terminate and which Turkey wants to turn into a regional energy hub. Socar has already received Turkish energy watchdog EPDK's permission for the Ceyhan refinery project.

Socar also plans a refinery at the Petkim site in western Turkey, in which it will invest $4-$5 billion to produce an annual 6-8 million tonnes of feedstock for Petkim. An 800 MW power plant, due to be built by Turcas and E.ON is planned for the same area. Turcas Chairman Erdal Aksoy said that plant and other planned facilities would bring a total $10 billion of investment from different players to the Petkim site over seven to eight years, on top of the $2 billion planned to increase capacity at Petkim itself.
Petkim shares closed the first session flat in a slightly positive market. Turcas rose 3.0 percent.
A privatisation official said last week that the state's controlling stake in Petkim could be handed over to its new owners by the end of January.

The deal has been opposed in the courts, although other privatisations have gone ahead despite court challenges. (Reporting by Ercan Ersoy, editing by Anthony Barker)