An oil refinery investment 'Star Rafineri' of Azeri state oil company SOCAR in Turkey's Aegean coast was awarded the "Refinery Deal of the Year" by Project Finance International in London.
Winners of the prestigious annual awards of Project Finance International magazine were announced on Feb. 4 with seven regional categories and further sub-divided into eight regions. 'Star Rafineri' was awarded the 'refinery deal of the year' under the 'Middle East and Africa' regional category.
Kenan Yavuz, Turkey's CEO of SOCAR, said in a statement that the refinery deal is the biggest, multi-sourced financing and most sophisticated project finance operation in Turkey with respect to the credit amount, guarantees and maturity structure."
SOCAR Turkey Energy Company, the Azerbaijani energy giant's Turkish venture, signed a US$3.3 billion credit deal for its Star refinery project in Istanbul on June 5, 2014. Local and international creditors – including export credit agencies, commercial banks and development banks – will provide the total credit over an 18-year term, with a grace period given for the first four years.
Yavuz said the project's mixed credit involves seven import credit agencies from six different countries, 13 international trade banks, two foreign development banks and a Turkish Bank.
"We hope the project finance will be the biggest oil and natural gas finance project in the Europe-Middle East-Africa region. We will contribute towards the solution of the current account deficit of Turkey with a minimum of $2.5 billion when we put the new refinery plan into operation in 2017," Yavuz said.
According to Yavuz, if Turkey could have 10 more projects on the same-scale, the remaining current account deficit, other than through energy imports, would disappear. Moreover, he said that with the new refinery's capacity of 10 million tons of crude oil per annum - Turkey's biggest to date - Turkey will become a net-importer with refined products.
Yavuz said that the total cost of the refinery will be $5.7 billion with $3.29 billion of that amount coming from financial loans and the remainder from the company's own resources.
Yavuz added that the refinery will not only become the biggest investment in one region, but will also have the most ecological, productive and advanced technology.
Reporting by Gokhan Kurtaran and Writing by Muhsin Baris Tiryakioglu
Anadolu Agency
muhsin.tiryakioglu@aa.com.tr