President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his Azerbaijani counterpart Ilham Aliyev opened in Izmir on October 19th one of Türkiye's largest industrial projects, the Star Oil refinery, which was built by Azerbaijan's state oil company, SOCAR.
During the ceremony, President Erdoğan said that Türkiye and Azerbaijan have jointly redrawn Europe’s energy and transportation map with the backing of a strong political stance. “Today, with the inauguration of the Star Oil Refinery, we are taking a step forward in our ties, which is a model globally,” said Erdoğan.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev also underlined that the brotherhood between Türkiye and Azerbaijan stands as the main reason behind the commissioning of the Star Refinery Project. “Strong ties between the two countries are our greatest fortune,” he stressed.
The USD 6 billion refinery is the largest single-location real sector investment in Türkiye's history, and it will be one of the largest petroleum and gas operations in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. Around 1,100 people will be employed for the refinery which is expected to meet over 25 percent of Türkiye's processed oil needs, thus reducing the country’s dependency on petroleum and saving around USD 1.5 billion.