Page 10 - DMEA Week 35 2021

DMEA REFINING DMEA

Power system trials begin at

Karbala ahead of 2022 start-up

MIDDLE EAST IRAQ is carrying out tests on power generation 200MW this summer”.
systems at its new 140,000 barrel per day (bpd) The refinery will comprise 35 operational and
refinery at Karbala ahead of start-up which service units including four gasoline production
remains on schedule for mid-2022. units, a thermal cracking unit, a poly-naphtha
Speaking to press following a site visit, Oil unit to produce octane 95 and 90 fuels as well as
Minister Ihsan Abdul Jabbar said that tests of the 44 storage tanks. Gasoline-producing units have
remaining production units would follow. already been completed
In May, he was quoted by the Iraq News It is expected to produce LPG, gasoline, gas
Agency as saying that the refinery was around oil, fuel oil, jet fuel and asphalt to meet interna-
90% complete, adding that it will come into tional standards.
operation in September 2022 at which point Last year, the Ministry of Oil (MoO) said
it will allow Iraq to reduce its refined product that full commissioning of the Karbala unit was
imports significantly. expected in the first quarter of 2022 and the delay
During this week’s visit, he inaugurated the is believed to be largely the result of logistics
facility’s administration building and said that issues relating to the covid-19 pandemic.
the refinery will play an important role “in pro- Plans to develop a greenfield refinery at Kar-
viding high-quality oil products, and covering a bala have been on the drawing board since 2007,
large part of the local need”. when Baghdad launched a downstream devel-
Meanwhile, the Deputy Minister Hamid You- opment programme comprising four new plants
nis noted: “The ministry’s keenness to accelerate across the country.
the development of the refinery sector in Iraq Three of these were to have capacities of
by building modern refineries and introducing 140,000-150,000 bpd, with a 300,000-bpd facility
new units for the current refineries.” He added planned at Nasiriyah as well.
that the country would experience a “qualitative Of these, only Karbala has reached the con-
increase in the production of oil derivatives” struction phase following the MoO’s reversion to
The Ministry of Oil (MoO) said that Abdul an engineering, procurement and construction
Jabbar had “instructed the refinery’s manage- (EPC) contract and its award to a South Korean
ment to expedite the completion of the technical consortium led by Hyundai Engineering & Con-
measures required to supply the province’s elec- struction in early 2014. Work began in February
tric power system with a generative capacity of that year.™

P10 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 35 02•September•2021