Page 6 - DMEA Week 31 2021

DMEA REFINING DMEA

Rocket strikes

Iraq’s Baiji refinery

MIDDLE EAST IRAQ’S refinery at the northern city of Baiji He added that the company had also com-
came under attack again this week and was pleted the “reconstruction and rehabilitation”
struck by a rocket. of the Salah al-Din 2 refinery, which also has a
The strike was first reported by the local 70,000 bpd capacity.
Al-Hadath news agency, which said that one per- Hussein added that “the atmospheric distil-
son had been killed in the blast with four others lation unit and the low-pressure part of the light
injured. No group has yet claimed responsibility distillate hydrogenation unit have been com-
for the attack. pleted” and are operational.
The facility, located on the Baghdad-Mosul Meanwhile, work remains “ongoing to recon-
road and comprised of the Salah al-Din 1 and 2 struct and rehabilitate part of the high-pressure
units, was once the country’s largest at 310,000 hydrogenation unit of light distillates and the
barrels per day (bpd) but was severely damaged gasoline improvement unit, in addition to the
during the IS invasion and occupation. isomerisation unit”.
Work remains ongoing to return the refinery As part of the same project, work was also
to its former condition, with the country’s Min- carried out to reconstruct and rehabilitate six
istry of Oil (MoO) announcing in January that steam boilers, service units, as well as “tanks and
a project had been completed to increase Baiji’s their systems” within the refining complex.
capacity. Hussein said that “work is [also] continuing
This saw state-owned operator North Refin- to rehabilitate the damaged tanks, and construct
eries Co. (NRC) double Baiji’s derivatives output new tanks, as well as the rehabilitation of indus-
capabilities from 70,000 bpd to 140,000 bpd. trial water-handling units” at the refinery, with
In June, NRC director-general Qassem the NRC preparing to begin reconstruction
Abdul Rahman Hussein said that the company work soon. The next phase in Baiji’s redevelop-
had completed several projects, “including the ment is a project that will see capacity increased
reconstruction and rehabilitation of the Salah to 280,000 bpd. Meanwhile, efforts are ongoing
al-Din 1 refinery with a capacity of 70,000 bpd by NRC elsewhere in the north and by Midland
with all its production units, which include the Refineries Co. and South Refineries Co. that,
atmospheric distillation unit, the hydrogenation if realised would almost triple the country’s
unit of light distillates, and the gasoline improve- 772,000 bpd nameplate refining capacity to
ment unit”. around 2.1mn bpd.™

P6 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 31 05•August•2021