SOCAR Türkiye is the largest integrated industrial group in Türkiye, operating across the refinery, petrochemical, gas and logistics sectors. The company manages some of the nation’s most critical industrial assets, including the STAR refinery (a greenfield Refineryi in operation since 2019) and Petkim (a Petrochemical complex operating for over 40 years and privatized at 2008), playing a pivotal role in Türkiye’s energy security and industrial value chain. As the operational environment of these facilities is inherently complex and high-risk, SOCAR Türkiye recognised the urgent need to modernise ,standardize and integrate its maintenance and asset management practices to ensure reliability, safety and sustainability.

Despite operating high-capacity facilities – such as STAR Refinery, with a 12 million tons/year crude processing capacity, and Petkim with a 3.6 million tons/year petrochemical output – SOCAR Türkiye faced significant operational challenges. These included high failure rates in critical equipment, increased maintenance costs due to unplanned shut downs, and gaps in predictive maintenance capabilities. Key issues were identified in critical assets, such as compressors and pumps, where breakdowns directly affected production efficiency and increased safety risks.

Additionally, a lack of integration across maintenance strategies and absence of a formal asset management system led to inefficiencies in resource utilisation, planning and decision-making. The company also lacked alignment with international asset management standards. A comprehensive gap analysis, supported by external consultancy (Stork), confirmed the need for a structured transformation aligned with ISO 55001.

In response, SOCAR Türkiye launched a multi-year reliability transformation journey, built on best practices in asset management and supported by its executive leadership. The transformation involved a cross-functional team of more than 100 specialists and thousands of collaborative sessions across departments, with a core reliability team leading the initiative. The strategy was multi-dimensional and included:

• Implementation of ISO 55001 asset management system, leveraging GE Vernova APM software.
• Asset criticality analysis (ACA) to identify and prioritise high-risk equipment.
• Reliability-centred maintenance (RCM) and failure modes and effects analysis (FMEA) to establish proactive maintenance strategies.
• Predictive maintenance tools to help prevent failure.
• Risk-based inspections (RBI) to optimise inspections.
• Root cause analysis (RCA) to eliminate recurring issues.
• Cultural change and training programmes to embed a reliability mindset throughout the organisation.

These efforts led to substantial improvements:

• 20% reduction in reactive maintenance.
• 10% decrease in HSE and process safety incidents.
• 7% cut in maintenance inventory costs.
• 5% reduction in overall maintenance expenditures.
• 2% increase in asset availability.

The reliability improvements also resulted in enhanced compliance with safety and environmental standards. SOCAR Türkiye achieved ISO 55001 certification in 2022 and gained international recognition by winning “the Cross-Border Achievement” award at the 2024 Oil & Gas Middle East Awards.

SOCAR Türkiye was awarded the 2025 GE Vernova Excellence Award in the "Innovation in APM Implementation" category by implementing GE Vernova's APM (Asset Performance Management) software in the most innovative way worldwide, demonstrating creativity and unconventional thinking.

Through a structured, data-driven, and collaborative approach, SOCAR Türkiye successfully overcame complex operational challenges and transformed its asset management capabilities. The initiative not only optimised costs and performance but also reinforced SOCAR Türkiye’s position as an industry leader in operational excellence, reliability, and sustainability.

Socar Turkey's aim extends beyond simply implementing ISO 55001 asset management system standards; the company is driven by an innovative approach to continuously improve these standards and establish new benchmarks that will lead the industry in asset management excellence.