Turcas in talks to leave Star Refinery

ISTANBUL

Turcas said it is negotiating with Socar to sell out its Star refinery stakes. DHA photo

Turkey’s Turcas Group has announced that it is in talks to withdraw from the Star Refinery project by transferring all of its 18 percent in shares to the majority shareholder, Azeri state oil company Socar.

The company on March 25 released a statement to announce that it was now seeking to sell the entirety of its shares after previously launching talks in February to sell 13.5 percent of its stakes in the refinery that will be built in the Aegean province of İzmir.

The owner of the Turkish petrochemical company Petkim, Socar has been building the $5.5 billion Star refinery in partnership with Turcas Petrol to supply feedstock to Petkim and cut Turkey’s dependence on imported refined products.

Socar controls 41.5 percent of the stakes in the project that is slated to become operational by 2018, while Turcas has 18.5 percent and the Azerbaijan Economy and Development Ministry owns the remaining 40 percent.

If the share transfer between Turcas and Socar goes through, the total amount of shares under Socar’s control will rise to 58.5 percent.

Socar Turkey announced lat week it had agreed with Denizbank on the fresh financing of $500 million to replace the World Bank’s International Finance Corporation and the European Bank of Reconstruction and Development who had withdrawn from a consortium financing the Star refinery.