Turkey鈥檚 Koc Holding Energy Group, which already competes with world giants in the oil refinery sector,聽is not afraid of the competitive challenge from聽new refinery companies in Turkey, the company鈥檚 top official said in a recent exclusive interview with The Anadolu Agency.
Koc Holding, which ranks among the world鈥檚 top 350 companies, partly owns Turkey鈥檚 largest industrial enterprise, Turkish Petroleum Refineries Corporation, TUPRAS.
As the sole controller of Turkey鈥檚 refining capacity, TUPRAS聽has an annual processing capacity of 28.1 million tons of crude聽oil.聽
"Koc Holding Energy Group made TUPRAS one of the most advanced oil refineries in the world," Erol Memioglu, the head of Koc Holding Energy Group said.
"We invested $5.2 billion in the refinery sector during the last nine聽years," said Omer Koc, the head of TUPRAS board said in December. 聽
Memioglu pointed out that despite the perception that TUPRAS聽operates as a monopoly in Turkey's refinery sector, he explained that it in fact it has to聽compete聽with world giants including Shell and BP.
"Turkey has a liberal oil market. If the companies think TUPRAS is overpricing its refinery products, they can import their goods from any other global refining company," Memioglu said.
An investigation was launched in July 2012 to determine聽whether TUPRAS, Turkey's sole petroleum refiner,聽and oil distributor OPET abused their dominant position聽in the Turkish market聽during the 2008 world financial crisis聽through exploitative and exclusionary behavior.
"TUPRAS must have competitive prices in order to be chosen over its international rivals," Memioglu said, adding that, "Therefore we fully support the potential new refinery companies in Turkey, so that this perception of monopoly can end."聽
- Low oil prices
In response to the question on the company increasing profits from the slump in oil prices,聽Memioglu said oil prices did聽not have direct effects on refinery products but seasonality and demand had a聽bigger impact.
"The decrease in oil prices will have positive effects on Turkey鈥檚 budget deficit. However refined oil products are also bound to the changes in currency," Memioglu said.
Turkish聽Deputy Prime Minister聽Ali Babacan聽said Saturday that Turkey would聽reduce its聽inflation rate to 5-6聽percent聽due to the聽decline in聽oil prices in 2015.
Oil prices have fallen聽almost 60聽percent in the last seven months,聽their sharpest drop聽since 2008, due to oversupply and low聽oil demand in world聽markets.
By Nihan Cabbaroglu & E. Gurkan Abay
Anadolu Agency
enerji@aa.com.tr