According to Reuters, crude oil traders and informants told the news agency that SOCAR, the Azerbaijani state-owned oil company, was increasing its production at Turkey’s new refinery and actively purchasing sour crude oil for the refinery, further tightening the already tight sour crude oil market in the Mediterranean and Europe.
Sources familiar with the start-up of the refinery told Reuters that SOCAR’s refinery STAR has a design and processing capacity of 200,000 barrels per day, which has now reached half of its planned capacity.
| EDTA 2Na |
The refinery will be able to operate at full capacity next month, and SOCAR is actively purchasing Russian Ural sulphur grade crude oil as supply of sulphur and heavy crude oil in the Mediterranean and Europe tightens.
OPEC production cuts and U.S. sanctions against Venezuela and Iran have limited the supply of heavy and sulphur crude oil grades in Europe. In Europe, sulfur and heavy-grade prices, including the Russian Ural, have recently soared as markets tighten.
U.S. sanctions against Iran have restricted some of the heavy-weight classes from entering Europe. With a new round of OPEC/non-OPEC production cuts that began in January, Iraq’s light and heavy Basra, often popular in European refineries, is short of supply on the spot market in Europe, as Iraq is shifting more Basra crude oil to the high-quality market of Middle East oil producers: Asia.
| EDTA |