Turkey’s state-owned refiner Tupras said on February 6th that preparations are under way for a new 5 million-tonne plant to meet rising product demand.
The new refinery could eventually see its capacity doubled, depending on future demand, and extra product supplies could be exported.
Tupras estimates that Turkey will need to boost refining capacity to 37 million tones by 2003 from the current 32 million tonnes.
The company holds 27.6 million tones of Turkey’s total refining capacity, while the remainder is held by Atas, the only private Turkish refiner, owned mostly by BP Amoco and Royal Dutch/Shell.
Tupras runs the Izmir, Izmit, Kirikkale and Batman refineries, and the new facility could be built alongside either the Izmir or Izmit refineries to reduce overhead costs.
Although the project had been estimated to cost as much as $1.6 billion, a company spokesman indicated that sharing existing infrastructure would save the company about $800 million on the project.
Before the new facility is constructed, Tupras plans to improve capacity utilization at the existing refineries to 93.7 percent in 2001 from 92.7 percent in 2000 and 92.3 percent in 1999.
The company will increase its investment spending to 113 trillion lira ($167 million) this year from 77 trillion lira ($113.8 million) in 2000, with new investment projects including unleaded gasoline plants at Izmir and Izmit and a diesel sulfur reduction unit at Izmir.
The improvements will help Tupras meet the same gasoline and diesel standards as the European Union by 2004.
© 2001 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
