QUALITY, ASSORTMENT AND ECOLOGICAL SAFETY MAKE A BASIS OF OUR ACTIVITY

National manufacturer has ousted the world leading companies from market

"Alkan Ltd" is a Scientific - Technological Society founded in 1994. Its activity is concentrated in the following directions: scientific - research works, creating and implementation into industry of the new technologies and know-how; production of reagents for oil-producing and oil-refining industries, production of special purpose polyols as well as flexible and rigid foam polyurethanes. The company is open for cooperation with interested partners in order to organize new productions, modernization and implementation of new technologies in the Republic.

Caspian Energy: Mr. Hassanov, your company exists for more than 11 years, please, tells us, what you have reached and whether you are satisfied with the results of the work done:

Aydin Hassanov: Thank you for the question. We must state at once that we can never be satisfied otherwise it will mean stagnancy, stop at the reached. Nevertheless, I would like to note that our company has been really existing for about 11 years. Within such quite a short period of time our company which started its activity possessing only several employees as a staff has grown into a large production complex associated with the biggest state chemical plants and scientific-research centers of the world. Already in the first five years in conditions of the rigid competition and counteraction we managed to oust all the world leading companies supplying demulsifiers for oil-producing industry and completely won the Azerbaijan market. Earlier, before application of our reagents, the share of prepared oil of the first category did not exceed 70% but now this indication show more than 97%. If earlier Azerbaijan imported these reagents from Germany, USA, United Kingdom and Holland, but nowadays, we ourselves export our production and compete with the companies of the aforesaid countries in the greatest oil-producing states of the Middle East region (Iran, Iraq, Kuwait and United Arab Emirates).

Tests of the oil samples from various oil fields of the world have been conducted a number of times by our science employees in cooperation with the leading scientists of Germany, USA and Russia. We have created an enormous database where the results of those tests are stored and which did a sensation. Comparative analyses were conducted in the laboratories of the competing companies in Southampton and Aberdeen (UK) and also in Frankfurt am Main (Germany). The companies conducting these tests had been considered to be the best manufacturers of the product. Now we are recognized, we are considered with and are wanted to cooperate with.

At present time, scientific - technological society "Alkan Ltd." is a possessor of a number of "know-hows" on new reagents, which have been developed and industrially mastered by us. I think it will also be appropriate to mention that our company is accredited according to ISO 9001:2000 "Quality Management System" and are close to be accredited according to ISO 14001:2000 "Environment Management System".

Naturally, we are proud of the fulfilled work. However, there are higher tops in front, which we are to overcome, there is still a lot of work to do.

You speak about the reagents manufactured by your company. Would you tell us more about them?

Yes, when we are speaking about analyses conducted on our reagents we mean not only the whole range of developed production but also about the chemicals successfully implemented into industry. To be more exact, about the following products:

1) Demulsifiers for cleaning and preparation of crude oil. A number of demulsifiers types have been developed, both for oil cleaning while extraction and for additional cleaning at oil-refineries. Oil from different fields is unique by its physico-chemical properties, and our employees use an individual approach for each case. The result of such approach is satisfaction of all clients' requirements. The consumption of our reagents is small but the rate of cleaning is high and maximally deep.

2) Reagents of Alkan - 2000 type or as oilmen call it Progress - 2000 have been developed by our specialists and successfully used since 2000. These reagents are for well bore treatment, wells cleaning and increase of oil production. These reagents are especially significant for treatment of exhausted and old wells with the aim of increasing of their production and recovery of oil fields.

Besides, the inter-repair periods of oil-producing well equipment are considerably prolonged which is an additional and very important aspect from the economical point view.

We can bring concrete figures: economical effect from our reagents use (mainly, additional oil production) only for the period of 2004 made 5 billiard of manats at "Neft Dashlari", 6 billiard of manats at "28 May" and 1 billiard at "Absheronneft" oilfields. Similar indications can be brought for the other oil fields.

3) "Alkanon R - 7" - is a reagent speeding up oil transportation through pipelines. Using this reagent, pipeline companies and oil-refineries increase output capabilities of pipelines without increasing pressure and diameter of pipelines and without installation of additional and expensive pumping equipment. Pipeline output after application of our reagent is 35 - 40% higher.

4) Surfactants-reagents for washing of oil polluted soil. It is found that 0,1 water solutions of our surfactants effectively wash out oil from soil with a high degree of pollution (10-20% and more).

Besides, we have developed and produce in association with the state plants a number of high molecular compositions of special purpose and polyethers for production of flexible and rigid foam polyurethane, which are successfully exported to Russia, Turkey and Iran.

What are the main priorities of development of the company?

The question of development priorities is the most important for us now. There are a lot of perspectives open for us, and it is very important to which exactly we shall give our preference. Thus, for present, goals of new manufacture establishing and development of new stable and reliable raw materials sources are in front of our scientists. In addition, we have always considered constant quality improvement and increase of the assortment of our products a priority.

Mr. Hassanov, as you know the question of environmental safety is one of the most important presently. What is the situation with your reagents, do they meet ecological requirements?

It is true that the environment safety question is the most actual today. Safety of ecology, health and welfare of the populations of the regions where our reagents are used is a matter of outmost significance for us. Due to this very reason an obligatory condition of our activity is scientific-research works estimating sanitary-toxicological properties of our products both while their production and application at oil-field. There is an ecological policy determined and supported by our company. Observance of all the policy aspects is one of the main requirements for products and personnel. Thus, Association "Ecology" at Ministry of Health of the Azerbaijan Republic, Institute of Physiology and Institute of Microbiology of the Academy of Sciences of Azerbaijan conducted scientific works on study of different properties of the products produced by us and which are widely used now.

I'd like to underline with satisfaction that our reagents proved to be the safest ones according to their sanitary-toxicological properties and their influence on flora and fauna of the Caspian reservoir for they are not accumulated in the live organisms and, what is the most important, they are biodegradable. The significance of such investigation is especially high if one takes into consideration that the Caspian Sea is a closed lake.