Azerbaijan to Import Up to 50,000 Tons of AI-92 Gasoline in December

Azerbaijan plans to import between 30,000 and 50,000 tons of AI-92 gasoline in December. This volume is necessary to ensure a stable supply of this petroleum product to meet the country’s needs amid the ongoing scheduled maintenance at the Baku Oil Refinery.

According to the industry agency “Argus,” the maintenance at the Baku refinery, which began on October 24, will be completed between December 10-15, a few days later than initially planned. It is expected that it will take an additional 7-10 days to produce sufficient quantities of commercial gasoline to meet market demand. Therefore, imports of the most popular gasoline grade in Azerbaijan will be required in December, notes Argus.

It should be noted that the scheduled maintenance and modernization work at the refinery named after Heydar Aliyev, with an annual capacity of 6.5 million tons, was initially planned for April-May this year. However, due to the international climate event COP29, the work was postponed to October-November. The completion of the planned tasks has also been delayed.

Traders have informed “Argus” that there are no free volumes of AI-92 gasoline available on the Russian market, as December’s allocations have already been distributed.

At the same time, “Argus” highlights that trading companies purchased about 150,000 tons of AI-92 gasoline for delivery to Azerbaijan between August and November. These volumes were sourced from refineries in Lithuania, Belarus, Bulgaria, and Romania. The buyers of the AI-92 were Azerbaijani companies SOCAR and Azpetrol.

Meanwhile, Turan news agency, based on reports from Azerbaijan’s State Statistics Committee, clarified that in January-September, the country imported 87.8 thousand tons of AI-92 gasoline, 55.8 thousand tons of AI-95, and 1.53 thousand tons of AI-98. During the same period, Azerbaijan also imported 30.9 thousand tons of diesel fuel.

From January to October, the Baku Oil Refinery produced 1.2 million tons of gasoline, compared to 1.21 million tons in the previous year, as well as 1.97 million tons of diesel (compared to 1.93 million tons in the same period of 2023). The domestic demand for AI-92 gasoline in Azerbaijan is about 120,000 tons per month, while diesel fuel demand exceeds 160,000 tons per month, according to market participants.