Page 14 - DMEA Week 07 2022

DMEA REFINING DMEA

Karbala refinery seen beginning

commissioning on schedule

MIDDLE EAST IRAQ’S Karbala refinery is set to begin commis- of 200 MW”.
sioning on schedule in September before ramp- Meanwhile, deputy Oil Minister Hamid You-
ing up to full capacity in 2023, according to the nis said at the time: “The ministry [is keen] to
facility’s director. accelerate the development of the refinery sec-
Speaking to the Iraq Oil Report during a site tor in Iraq by building modern refineries and
visit, Hayder Shareef Mohammed said that the introducing new units for the current refineries.”
refinery will produce high-quality products to He added that the country would experience a
help meet growing domestic fuel demand; how- “qualitative increase in the production of oil
ever he noted that uncertainty over the financing derivatives”
of the remaining stages of the project will carry Karbala will comprise 35 operational and
over into the project’s timeline. service units, including four gasoline production
Mohammed said that Karbala will open with units, a thermal cracking unit, a poly-naphtha
a capacity of 70,000 barrels per day (bpd) of light unit to produce octane 95 and 90 fuels as well as
and medium crude and he anticipates that this 44 storage tanks. Gasoline-producing units have
will rise to its full 140,000 bpd capacity during already been completed.
2023. In October, the South Korean consortium It is expected to produce LPG, gasoline, gas
developing the refinery, led by Hyundai Engi- oil, fuel oil, jet fuel and asphalt to meet interna-
neering & Construction, told Oil Minister Ihsan tional standards.
Abdul-Jabbar that despite delays caused by a halt Plans to develop a greenfield refinery at Kar-
to works imposed by the coronavirus (COVID- bala have been on the drawing board since 2007,
19) pandemic, the facility has surpassed 92% when Baghdad launched a downstream devel-
completion. opment programme comprising four new plants
This followed the beginning of trials on across the country.
power generation systems in late August with Of these, Karbala the the only one to reach
Abdul-Jabbar instructing “the refinery’s man- the has reached the construction phase following
agement to expedite the completion of the tech- the Ministry of Oil’s reversion to an engineering,
nical measures required to supply the province’s procurement and construction (EPC) contract
electric power system with a generative capacity and its award in 2014.™

P14 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 07 17•February•2022