Azerbaijan’s state owned Baku refinery has another petroleum coke (petcoke) production issue and cannot guarantee petcoke supplies to its customers in February, according to an industry source.
Baku exports low-sulphur petroleum coke to Russia and neighboring countries for electrode production. The refinery is not providing a timeline for when petcoke production may resume. This is at least the third time in the last nine months when the refinery has had problems with production. Every time, the refinery had to stop its petcoke export loading.
“Another disruption raises questions about the reliability of Baku refinery as a long-term, low-sulphur petroleum coke supplier,” the market source commented. “Supply shortage and high demand support high prices for low-sulphur petroleum coke in Russia and [the former Soviet Union], which are stable compared to last year’s levels.”
Baku refinery has the capacity to produce 20,000 to 25,000 tons of petroleum coke (with sulphur content below 0.6%) per month. The only low-sulphur alternative supplier in the ex-USSR market is Turkmenbashi refinery, which exports 10,000 to 15,000 tons of petroleum coke per month.
Source: Legion Oil & Gas LLC
