12:42 - 6.10.2023

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October 6, Fineko/abc.az. Russian oil company Lukoil is to give a loan of $1.5 billion to the State Oil Company (SOCAR).

ABC.AZ reports that in addition, Lukoil will start supplying Russian crude oil to STAR refinery, SOCAR's asset in Türkiye.

Currently, the processing capacity of the plant is 200ç000 b/d of oil.

This summer, STAR refinery stopped importing Russian crude oil due to difficulties in trade with Russia in connection with international financial sanctions and replaced it with Kazakh oil KEBCO. STAR refinery reduced Urals oil purchases to less than 50,000 b/d, while in 2022 the volume of purchases averaged 100,000 b/d of oil.

Under the agreement, Lukoil will start supplying about 100,000 b/d of Urals oil day to STAR refinery from October. This is half of the refining capacity of STAR refinery. Three oil tankers Azure Celeste, Ocean Faye and Sea Fidelity left Primorsk for Türkiye in late September or early October after loading 100,000 tons of Urals oil. It is reported that this is the first batch of supplies under the new contract.