The refinery was built by the Swiss contractor Foster Wheeler AG. It was put into operation on 30 April 1962. The company's headquarter as well as its facilities are located in Akdeniz district of Mersin at . to the east of the city center. Its annual production was 3.2 million tonnes. On 7 June 2004, ATAŞ gave up refining crude oil. With the shut down of the refinery after 42-year of production, households and industry facilities in 24 provinces of the Mediterranean and Southeastern Anatolia regions faced fuel oil shortage. Temporary supply from the far away Tüpraş Kırıkkale Oil Refinery caused an increase of oil prices around 11%.
