On February 3, the Italian group Maire Tecnimont S.p.A and SOCAR, Azerbaijan’s State Oil Company, signed two Engineering Procurement e Construction (EPC) contracts as part of the modernization of the Heydar Aliyev Oil Refinery in Baku. The contracts, amounting to some $160 million, relate to the installation of three process units, necessary to produce gasoline compatible with EURO-5 standards.
The signing ceremony was attended by SOCAR President Rovnag Abdullayev, Italian Ambassador in Azerbaijan Augusto Massari, Maire Tecnimont Chairman Fabrizio Di Amato and Maire Tecnimont Group CEO Pierroberto Folgiero.
The project will be carried out by two subsidiaries of Maire Tecnimont S.p.A, Tecnimont S.p.A. and KT-Kinetics Technology S.p.A., that are already working together at the Aliyev Refinery, executing an EPC contract awarded in 2018.
The Heydar Aliyev Oil Refinery, named after the former president of Azerbaijan and father of the current leader Ilham Aliyev, is the only oil refining facility of the South Caucasus region, able to meet Azerbaijan’s entire demand for petroleum products and still export 45% of its production. The refinery is currently undergoing extensive modernization, which is intended to increase its processing capacity to 7.5Mt of oil a year by 2021, improving at the same time the quality of its products.
Maire Tecnimont S.p.A. is heir to Italy’s best industrial tradition and is today an international leader in the engineering, technology, and energy sectors, with more than 50 companies active in 45 different countries. The agreement represents a major milestone for the Group because it allows it to consolidate its presence in the strategic Azerbaijani market and it confirms its orientation to leverage its distinctive competencies, technological know-how and synergies among its EPC contractors.
Pierroberto Folgiero, CEO of Maire Tecnimont S.p.A., commented: “We are really honored to put once again our technological expertise at the service of an historical and prestigious client such as SOCAR, thus consolidating our successful, longtime collaboration aimed at unlocking greater value in Azerbaijan’s downstream value chain. This achievement lets us foster a mutually beneficial relationship and paves the way to future growth.”
Rovnag Abdullayev, President of SOCAR, highlighted how the collaboration between the Italian group and the Azerbaijani company is part of a broader cooperation between the two countries. As we wrote in this article, Italy and Azerbaijan recently signed a multidimensional strategic partnership. The agreement contributed to strengthening a bilateral relationship that had already proven fruitful, especially in the energy field. In fact, Azerbaijan has been for years Italy’s main oil supplier and has recently started to export natural gas to the country through the TAP pipeline.
