24.12.25
At the beginning of January 2026, SOCAR Türkiye Energy AŞ (STEAS), a subsidiary of the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan (SOCAR), announced plans to establish a new company in Türkiye under the Front-End Engineering Design (FEED) framework to produce ethylene, polyethylene, and polypropylene (polyolefins). A total of $7 billion is planned to be invested in the newly established company, according to Vesti.az.
Currently, Türkiye has a significant demand for polyolefins and imports approximately 90% of these products. Under these conditions, the initiative to build a new complex—expected to be commissioned in the 2030s—is considered a highly profitable, economically justified project capable of generating sustainable income.
At present, SOCAR Türkiye has managed Petkim Holding since 2008, which is almost the only large-scale producer of polyolefins in the country. However, Petkim’s production capacity meets only 11–12% of Türkiye’s domestic demand. Therefore, the need to establish new production facilities remains high.
By around 2033, Türkiye’s demand for polyolefins is expected to exceed 6 million tons per year. At that time, the launch of ethylene, polyethylene, and polypropylene production by FEED (STEAS) would play a key role in meeting the growing needs of Türkiye’s industrial and agricultural sectors.
Polyolefins are widely used in the production of various types of films, cable products, containers, and profiled goods, and they are among the core materials for many sectors of the economy.
In 2024, Petkim’s 16 facilities produced more than 2 million tons of products in total, including nearly 600,000 tons of polyolefins. SOCAR invests more than $100 million annually to maintain and modernize Petkim’s production capacities. In contrast, the new $7 billion investment plan aims to create entirely new capacities using modern technologies. It should be noted that the total volume of SOCAR’s investments in projects in Türkiye amounts to approximately $18 billion.
