Türkiye Petrol Rafinerileri A.Ş. is a company in Turkey, operating four refineries with a total capacity to handle an annual 30 million tons of crude.
Introduction
Tüpraş operates four oil refineries, three of which process imported crude. The İzmit refinery in northwestern Turkey and the İzmir refinery at Aliağa on the Aegean coast each have an annual capacity of 11 million tonnes, and both receive crude from global markets via marine tankers. The Kırıkkale refinery in central Turkey, has an annual capacity of 5 million tonnes and processes crude oil that is shipped to the Mediterranean hub at Ceyhan and then transported inland to the refinery through a bespoke pipeline. The fourth facility, the Batman refinery, has an annual capacity of 1.1 million tonnes. It processes domestic crude extracted from numerous small oil fields in southeastern Turkey, which is transported to the facility via an existing pipeline network and road tankers.
Tüpraş also owns a majority stake (79.98%) in the shipping company DİTAŞ and, since 2006, a 40% ownership of petrol retailer Opet.
The company's origins go back to İPRAŞ (İstanbul Petrol Rafinerisi A.Ş.) established by the U.S. Caltex Company (now part of Chevron). In 1983, İPRAŞ and three other publicly owned refineries were brought into state control under the Tüpraş umbrella. Partial privatization started in 1991, when an IPO sold 2.5% of shares to the public; by 2005 a number of secondary issues had taken this up to 49%. In 2005, a consortium of