BP, Azerbaijan’s SOCAR mull 1.25m tonne/year PTA joint venture in Turkey

LONDON (ICIS)--BP and Azerbaijan’s crude oil major SOCAR’s subsidiary in Turkey are mulling the creation of a joint venture for purified terephthalic acid (PTA) with a 1.25m tonnes/year production capacity, the UK’s oil and petrochemicals major said on Thursday. The proposed facility would be based in Aliaga in west Turkey, next to SOCAR’s STAR refinery, and would come onstream in 2023. A final investment decision (FID) is expected in 2019. Apart from 1.25m tonnes/year of PTA, the joint venture would also produce 840,000 tonnes/year of paraxylene (PX) and 340,000 tonnes/year of benzene, BP said. Turkey’s petrochemicals major Petkim, of which SOCAR Turkey is the majority shareholder with a 51% stake, also operates a complex in the area.