03-06-08 Azeri state energy firm SOCAR said it plans to raise between EUR 20 bn and EUR 22 bn ($ 31.20 bn-$ 34.32 bn) to invest in building new oil and gas refineries. The firm said it would seek funding from international lenders.
SOCAR said the new complex, which will replace the Soviet-era refineries in the Azeri capital Baku, will have a capacity of 20 bn cm of gas per year that will eventually double.

A chemical and mineral unit, as well as an oil refinery with an annual processing capacity of 10 mm tons, with the possibility to extend this in future, will also be constructed.
"By 2012 we plan to have a new gas processing plant using deposits from the Caspian Sea... SOCAR plans to take 4 bn cm per year from the Shah-Deniz fields," a SOCAR representative said.

The second, $ 10 bn phase of Azerbaijan's biggest gas field, Shah-Deniz in the Caspian Sea, is expected to come on stream towards the end of 2013. The chemical and oil refining units should be up and running by 2018, he said.
Norway's Statoil and oil major BP control Shah-Deniz, which produces around 15 mm cm of gas per day and has reserves of 1.2 tcm.