SOCAR To Step Up Investments In Turkey To $17 Bln By 2018

State Oil Company of the Azerbaijan Republic (SOCAR) President Rovnag Abdullayev recently announced his company's goal to become Turkey's largest foreign investor by 2018 with total of $17 billion in investments. He recalled the company's investments in Turkey's oil refinery, oil and natural gas, petroleum and petrochemicals sectors and noted that SOCAR's investments help strengthen the relationship between Turkey and Azerbaijan. He added: "Projects such as the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan [BTC] pipeline, the Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum natural gas pipeline and the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway have carried the level of relations between the countries to that of a strategic partnership." Abdullayev also noted that the strategic relationship gained momentum with the privatization of Turkish petrochemicals giant Petkim, which was won by the joint venture SOCAR & Turcas Energy. He added that bilateral relations will become even stronger with an increase in their investments and with the Trans-Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline Project (TANAP). "We plan to increase our total investment in Turkey to $17 billion and are proud to share this with the Turkish finance sector. Our projects and investments are the main indicators of our faith in the future of Turkey," he said. SOCAR Turkey President Kenan Yavuz also stated that that planned upgrades to Petkim's facilities will make it one of the largest oil refinery centers in Europe. He also noted that 70 percent of the company's construction of the STAR Refinery, which began in Izmir in October of 2011, has been completed and planning for new investments that will help the two countries cope with increasing energy demands is ongoing.