Azerbaijan and China have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on the oil and gas processing and petrochemical complex (GPC) project of SOCAR.

Axar.az reports citing Azernews.

SOCAR GPC Company reported that the document was signed during the high-level international forum held as part of the ‘One Belt – One Road’ strategy in Beijing.

The MoU was signed by President of Azerbaijan’s state oil company SOCAR Rovnag Abdullayev, Chairman of China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) Wang Yilin and head of the China Development Bank Hu Huaibang.

This agreement will regulate the services to be rendered by China Huanqiu Contracting and Engineering Corporation (HQC), subsidiary of CNPC and Technip Italy for the preliminary detailed design work as part of the SOCAR GPC project.

HQC and Technip Italy companies will start rendering services in accordance with this agreement from May 15, 2017.

The engineering and civil engineering work is provided by HQC, which has extensive experience in the field of design, procurement and construction of projects, with the support of Azerbaijani companies on the basis of projects prepared by the world's leading licensors.

The GPC project envisages construction of gas processing and petrochemical complex 15 km away from Baku by the Azerbaijani state oil company SOCAR. The capacity of the complex will be around 10 billion cubic meters of gas per year.

The complex will include a gasoline-powered ethylene pyrolysis plant with a capacity of 610,000 tons, a propylene plant with a capacity of 130,000 tons and a polyethylene plant with a capacity of 600,000 tons, Buten-1 and Hexen-1 facilities, a general plant and a heat energy center.

The cost of the project is around $4 billion.

SOCAR GPC Project is the beginning of a new era in development of Azerbaijan’s petrochemical industry. With implementation of this project Azerbaijan will become a global player in the petrochemical industry.