Ilham Aliyev attended ground breaking ceremony of new bitumen production facility

President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev has attended a ground breaking ceremony of a new bitumen production facility as part of reconstruction of the Heydar Aliyev Baku Oil Refinery.

President of Azerbaijan State Oil Company Rovnag Abdullayev informed President Ilham Aliyev about the construction of the new bitumen production facility and the work to be carried out at the Heydar Aliyev Baku Oil Refinery as part of the reconstruction project.

He said that a new bitumen production facility to be built at the Heydar Aliyev Oil Refinery would have an annual production capacity of 400,000 tons. EN 40/60 brand road bitumen will be produced here and the facility is expected to be commissioned in mid-2018.

The construction of the new bitumen facility will be the first stage of the reconstruction works to be carried out at the Heydar Aliyev Oil Refinery. The Austrian engineering company Pörner and the Heydar Aliyev Refinery signed an Engineering, Procurement, and Construction Management contract for the construction of the plant. By the construction of a new bitumen production facility, the current infrastructure of former Azerneftyag oil refinery will be fully decommissioned and the coastal areas will be emptied and handed over for the realization of White City project. Furthermore running costs of Heydar Aliyev Baku Oil Refinery will be optimized and the country will be provided with high-quality bitumen.

The company plans to produce high-quality oil products as part of the next stage of the reconstruction work to be carried out at the Heydar Aliyev Baku Oil Refinery. Under the program, the oil refinery will produce Euro-5 standard diesel in 2019 and the Euro 5 standard petrol in 2020. By realization of the project the processing capacity of the refinery will be increased to 7.5 million tons. This will help to fully meet the country's domestic consumption of car fuel for the next 15-20 years and increase the export potential of high-quality oil products. The implementation of the project will contribute to the improvement of the environmental situation in Baku and to the country's socio-economic development.

President Ilham Aliyev laid a foundation stone for the new bitumen production facility. The head of state was informed that more than 80 tractor and machine mechanisms, stationary power aggregates and other equipment have recently been purchased and brought to the country. All the equipment was successfully tested.

President Ilham Aliyev then met with the staff of the plant, and posed for photographs with them.