Socar Turkey and tecnicas reunidas sign Turkish refinery deal

Socar Turkey and a consortium led by Spain's Tecnicas Reunidas signed an agreement yesterday to build "Star Refinery," worth $4.3 billion in the western province of Izmir. Socar Turkey had begun infrastructure and excavation work for Star Refinery in the Aliaga district of Izmir after the groundbreaking ceremony attended by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Azeri President Ilham Aliyev in October 2011. Socar Turkey CEO Kenan Yavuz said that they had invested $185 million using their equity capital so far for the refinery's infrastructure and completed 70 percent of infrastructure work. "When we add the infrastructure investments worth $185 million, the future expenditures for electric and automation systems, others and taxes, the investment value aside from the financing costs will be worth $4.3 billion," Yavuz said, adding that Star Refinery was a localization project that would enable a $2.5 billion reduction in Turkey's current account deficit yearly.