The 212 million dollar Akbank loan for SOCAR, the State Oil Company of Azerbaijani Republic, for the container port project in Aliağa, İzmir, was approved on May 25. The project land was transferred to SOCAR with a ‘preferential’ clause added to the omnibus bill.
Before the plot on which the project will be developed was taken by the government from Buhar Enerji and allocated to SOCAR in a controversial manner, a renewable energy project was to be developed on the plot. When a 4-year legal process involving Buhar Enerji, and pressure from the Ministry of Energy yielded no outcome, the plot was transferred to SOCAR with a ‘preferential’ clause added to the omnibus bill. Following this new development, the Petkim Container Port will be the largest port along the Aegean coast, and SOCAR will become the largest foreign investor in Turkey.
For the plot in Aliağa, İzmir, the government had initially given a geothermal energy facility license to Buhar Energy, and later a refinery license to PETKİM, which is controlled by SOCAR. The complete U-turn by the government to cancel a green energy project and opt for a thermal power plant, an environmentally hazardous project, had been met with ‘surprise’. Following the government’s decision, SOCAR lost the lawsuit it filed to have Buhar Enerji’s license annulled in 2010, and the lawsuit it filed to have the tender annulled in 2013. A source close to Buhar Enerji we spoke to at the time, claimed that there had been pressure on Buhar Enerji from the government to give up, and that a ‘safe area’ had been promised to SOCAR, adding that a refinery, thermal power station and port would be constructed, and that there would be no supervision or reporting by public officers in the safe area. We reached the same source this week following the approval of the loan for the project, and the source stated that there were no ‘surprising’ developments in the process, and that everything was progressing as the government and SOCAR want.
At the time, a clause had been added for SOCAR to another omnibus bill, since the legal process and government pressure had yielded no outcome. According to the clause, a ‘geothermal council’ to be formed of five ministers takes decisions in consideration of the public good on matters such as subterranean water sources that pose an obstacle for the construction of airports, bridges, motorways, ports and energy facilities. The decision had been in favour of SOCAR.
The financing of the project including the refinery and container port also raises questions. The financing of the project for which Akbank has provided a 212 million dollar loan was initially to be provided from HypoVereinsbank, the German partner of the Italian Unicredit, and the European Reconstruction and Development Bank. However, it had emerged that these institutions had not been informed about the project in the proper manner; since both institutions have taken binding decisions not to support energy projects other than renewable energy projects. The Aegean Environment and Culture Platform, with its ‘Don’t Finance New Refinery and Thermal Power Plant Investments on the Aliağa Peninsula’ campaign had managed to attract the attention of the aforementioned two banks and have the loan approval postponed. Platform spokesperson Bahadır Doğutürk, with whom we spoke at the time of the postponement, had said, “An Environmental Impact Assessment (ÇED) meeting is held annually. We campaigned as the people of the region and managed to prevent the meeting from taking place. However, SOCAR made its application by claiming this meeting had taken place. We reacted because we believe this investment poses a threat to the region. The area is a peninsula in the west of Aliağa. We already know that PETKİM wants to have the area declared a ‘special project area’. If that is approved, we won’t be able to do anything even if they stock nuclear waste.” The agreement for the abovementioned project was signed between former Prime Minister and current President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev. The project includes a refinery, a thermal power plant, a container port, and a 720-student ‘Haydar Aliyev Technical and Industrial High School’
