TURKEY - The Refineries.

There are four operating refineries in Turkey and their nominal capacity is 619,255 b/d. They are all owned by Tupras. A fifth but old refinery at Mersin with a capacity of 100,000 b/d was closed in the autumn of 2004 and its owners - BP, Shell and the local firm Turcas Petrol - are running it as a loading terminal.

Tupras in early 2006 completed a $2 bn modernisation and upgrading programme. It has also planned to have a new 120,000 b/d refinery built next to its existing plant at Izmit, near the Istanbul region.

The Batman refinery went on stream in the 1950s with a capacity of 6,600 b/d. It was expanded to 14,000 b/d in 1961, to 22,000 b/d in 1972, and to 24,350 b/d a few years later.

Until the UN embargo on Baghdad in August 1990, the refinery used to process Iraq's Kirkuk crude oil. But in recent years the plant has been refining crude oils being supplied by the state-owned upstream petroleum operator TPAO.

The Izmit refinery, with an operable capacity of more than 255,000 b/d, was built in 1961 as a joint venture between TPAO (51%) and Caltex (49%). In 1972 Caltex sold its share to Tupras. As part of the refinery's modernisation programme, a $350m project including a 21,000 b/d hydrocracker and reformer to produce light products at this plant was completed in February 1997. Tupras has also had a $100m upgrade at this refinery to increase the output of vacuum gasoil.

Located 80 km east of Istanbul on the Gulf of Izmit, the refinery was damaged and put out of action as a major earthquake in August 1999 caused nearly one-third of Turkey's refining capacity to be shut down. Close to the epicentre, the refinery was engulfed by a big fire which took three days to bring under control. Only about 125,000 b/d of the plant's capacity became operational in early February 2000, and the catalytic reformer went back on line at the end of May 2000. The rest became operational in November 2000. As a result of the earthquake, other refineries ran at full capacity with some plants having exceeded it to meet local demand.

A $270m upgrade at the refinery was contracted in 2001. The project has included a new diesel desulphurisation unit and a grassroots continuous catalytic reformer (CCR). These have reduced the sulphur content of gasoil/ diesel to 50 parts per million, in line with the EU's emissions requirements for 2005, and increased the octane level of the gasoline pool.

The refinery's dock facilities are the largest in the east Mediterranean and can accommodate a 300,000 dwt tanker and a 100,000 dwt vessel simultaneously, in addition to smaller tankers.

The Aliaga refinery in Izmir, on the west coast, has capacity of 230,000 b/d. It came on stream in 1972 at the rate of 60,000 b/d. The capacity was raised to over 90,000 b/d in 1982, and later it underwent further expansion. Its docks can handle tankers of up to 90,000 dwt.

Tupras had a 16,500 b/d hydrocracker costing $250-$275m installed at the plant and inaugurated in October 1993. The cracker, built by Snamprogetti of Italy and the local Tekfen, includes units for vacuum distillation, visbreaking, and sulphur recovery.

The refinery has a CCR and an isomerisation unit built by Foster Wheeler Italiana and the local Gam under a $160m contract signed in March 1998. A $120m project tendered in 2001 has added units for diesel/kerosine hydroprocessing, de-aromatisation, dewaxing, sulphur recovery, amine regeneration and sour water stripping.

Another project has added a digital control system and a fluid catalytic cracking unit. These enable the Izmir diesel plant to process 60,000 b/d of crude into EU-specified 2005 gasoil/diesel and generate $80m/year in additional income. Both projects were completed in late 2003 and early 2004.

Kirikkale, 112,849 b/d and built in 1985, is Tupras' fourth plant located near Ankara. In 1992, an isomerisation unit was added to the plant. A 14,500 b/d hydrocracker installed at a cost of $225m-250m was inaugurated on Oct. 21, 1993. It was built by JGC of Japan.

A futher expansion at Kirikkale was tendered in 2001 and completed in 2005. Together with output from the other plants, products from Kirikkale are distributed in various provinces. It exports surplus products.

The Mersin facility, built as a JV refinery for Mobil, Shell and BP, and called Anadolu Tasfiyehanesi (ATAS), started operation in 1962 with a capacity of 64,000 b/d. In 1969 this was increased to 88,000 b/d.

By the autumn of 2004, after its capacity had reached 100,000 b/d but only half of that could be used, its owners had changed and the facility had been turned into a loading terminal. The owners now are BP, Shell and the local firm Turkas (see its background in Vol. 62, DT No. 17).