Page 5 - DMEA Week 27 2021

DMEA COMMENTARY DMEA

Baghdad has a similar arrangement in place with (NRC). Meanwhile, South Refineries Co. (SRC)
state firm Sinochem that effectively makes the is moving forward with engineering, procure-
Chinese company a marketing agent for sales to ment and construction and commissioning
Asian refineries. (EPCC) of its project to expand refining capa-
In April, protesters prevented employees bilities at Shuaiba under the Basrah Refinery
from entering the governorate’s 30,000 bpd Upgrading Project (BRUP). This will add 70,000
Nasiriyah refinery following the approval of bpd to the current slate of 210,000 bpd.
Iraq’s 2021 budget without the cabinet address- The EPC stage is being carried out by Japan’s
ing the lack of available jobs in the country, lead- JGC, which last year was awarded a $3.75bn
ing to fuel shortages in Dhi Qar. contract to build new refining facilities on land
adjacent to the existing refinery.
Progress elsewhere The MoO has previously said that capacity
Aside from the Dhi Qar award, Iraq has also would be expanded to 300,000 bpd. The latest
been pushing forward with refining projects at expansion follows successful completion in
Daura near Baghdad, Salah al-Din in the north, January 2020 of a project to expand the Shuaiba
Karbala in the centre of the country and Shuaiba facility from 140,000 bpd by Czech firm Tech-
outside Basra. noexport under an EPC contract awarded in
Karbala is the only greenfield facility on the 2015, which also covered increasing the output
list, with state-owned Midland Refineries Co. of higher-quality fuels.
(MRC) building a 140,000 bpd facility that has Technoexport completed installation of a
reached the construction phase and with Abdul crude distillation unit at the facility in 2013
Jabbar saying in May that the refinery would and of a catalytic reformer in 2007, and has also
come into operation in September 2022. The worked on several projects at the Daura refinery
facility will comprise 35 operational and service near Baghdad and for NRC – the operator of the
units, including four gasoline production units, beleaguered Baiji refinery.
a thermal cracking unit, a poly-naphtha unit to With Abdul Jabbar recently speaking of
produce octane 95 and 90 fuels as well as 44 stor- intentions to cut the government’s gasoline
age tanks. import bill by up to 50% by the end of the year as
At Daura, a new isomerisation unit, a new part of a wider plan to end imports of the fuel by
hydrogen plant and tanks for storing light deriv- 2023, further announcements should be antici-
atives were commissioned last month as part of pated. However, announcing projects is no guar-
a project to expand the refinery’s gasoline pro- antee of their success and as IOCs queue up to
duction capacity by 1mn litres per day. The two ditch their long-term technical service contracts
70,000 bpd refining units at Salah al-Din have (TSCs) to develop southern oilfields, the MoO
also been rehabilitated by North Refineries Co. is facing sizeable challenges on several fronts.™

Week 27 08•July•2021 www. NEWSBASE .com P5