The Izmit refinery located on the north-eastern coast of the Izmit Bay of the Marmara Sea is one of the oldest refineries in Turkey. With a crude oil processing capacity of 11.3 million tonnes per year (Mtpa), the refinery fulfils more than one third of Turkey’s total fuel consumption needs.

Owned and operated by Türkiye Petrol Rafinerileri AŞ (Tüpraş), the Izmit refinery produces a range of products including  LPG, naphtha, gasoline, jet fuel, kerosene, diesel, heating oil, fuel oil, and bitumen. The refinery is capable of producing high quality diesel, jet fuel, gasoline, and LPG at Euro V standards.

The Izmit refinery processed 11.1Mt of crude oil and 2Mt of semi-finished products in 2019.It achieved total product sales of 14.9Mt during the year, of which 11.8Mt were made domestically.

The refinery underwent residuum upgrading project (RUP) from 2011 to 2015 at a cost of £410.6m ($550m).It is currently undergoing a £37.3m ($50m) fluid catalytic cracking (FCC) revamp project, which will improve the performance of the FCC unit upon completion in 2021.

Location and site details

The Izmit refinery is located in the Tütünçiftlik region near the Gulf of İzmitin in the Kocaeli Province of Turkey, approximately 91km away from the capital city Istanbul.

Izmit refinery details

The Izmit refinery began commercial operations with a crude processing capacity of 1Mtpa and a storage capacity of three million cubic metres (mcm) in 1961.

The refinery has 17 units including six main units that include a 7,500m3 per day vacuum unit, a 8,200m3 per day coker unit, a hydroprocessing unit, a 160,000m3per hour hydrogen unit, a 120MW energy generation unit, and a petroleum logistics unit with 660,000m3 storage tanks.

The hydroprocessing unit comprises an 8,000m3 per day hydrocracker unit, a 1,200m3 per day naphtha hydrogenation unit, and a 4,000m3 per day diesel desulphurisation unit.

The refinery is also equipped with fuel oil conversion facility with one of the highest conversion rates in the world with a Nelson Complexity index of 14.5.

Residuum upgrade project

The residuum upgrading facility at the Izmit refinery was built to process 4.2Mt of heavy black products to produce 3.5Mt of nature compatible white products such as gasoline, LPG and diesel oil at EU standards.

Contractors involved

Tekfen Construction was contracted for the engineering, procurement and construction activities for increasing the operational performance of the FCC unit at the Izmit refinery. Tekfen started the works  in March 2018 with completion targeted for May 2021.

The company was also contracted to provide the maintenance and repair services for the refinery during January 2018 to February 2022.

Tekfen also provided construction services for the residuum upgrading project along with the main contractor Tecnicas Reunidas. Shell GSI, Foster Wheeler USA, UOP and Technip were selected as the technology licensors for the project.

Honeywell was contracted for improving the performance of the existing Honeywell UOP enhanced two-stage Unicracking™ process at the Izmit refinery with the addition of an external heavy polynuclear aromatics (HPNA) stripper. The scope of the contract included the basic engineering, catalysts and technical services for the project.

Tupras’ presence in Turkey

Tupras is Turkey’s leading industrial company that reported 6.4Mt of production and 6.7Mt of sales in the third quarter of 2020.

The company has been present in Turkey with the start of commercial operations at the Batman refinery in 1955.

Tupras also owns the 11.9Mtpa Izmir refinery and the 5.4Mtpa Kirikkale refinery, apart from the 11.3Mtpa Izmit refinery and the 1.4Mtpa Batman refinery.