Page 5 - DMEA Week 02 2023

DMEA COMMENTARY DMEA

Engineering & Construction, in 2014. In October 2020, Japan’s JGC was awarded
Its completion was slowed by a halt to works a $3.75bn engineering, procurement and con-
imposed by the coronavirus (COVID-19) pan- struction (EPC) to build a new fluid 55,000-bpd
demic, but in October 2021 project had sur- catalytic cracking (FCC) complex on land adja-
passed 92% completion. cent to the existing refinery at Shuaiba.
Abdulghani said: “The refinery’s produc- At that point, JICA said: “The project to con-
tion will cover a large percentage of up to 75% struct Iraq’s first-ever FCC complex will unleash
of domestic consumption, and the remaining the potential of Iraq’s refining sector to produce
percentage of imports will be covered by local the larger volume of the high-value outputs, pro-
production after developing a number of other mote the transfer of refining technologies from
refineries.” Japan and help save valuable foreign currencies
Early last year, then deputy Oil Minister [needed] to import huge amount of fuels”.
Hamid Younis said the ministry was keen “to Abdul-Zahra Al-Hindawi, a spokesperson
accelerate the development of the refinery sec- for the MoF, said that the project, which began
tor in Iraq by building modern refineries and in February 2021, would be completed during
introducing new units for the current refineries.” 2025.
He added that the country would experience a The latest expansion follows successful com-
“qualitative increase in the production of oil pletion in January 2020 of a project to expand the
derivatives.” Shuaiba facility from 140,000 bpd by Czech firm
Technoexport under an EPC contract awarded
Basra expansion in 2015, which also covered increasing the out-
A week or so earlier, the Iraqi Ministry of put of higher-quality fuels.
Finance (MoF) signed an $897mn loan agree- Technoexport completed the installation of
ment with the Japan International Co-operation a crude distillation unit at the facility in 2013
Agency (JICA), corresponding to the fourth and of a catalytic reformer in 2007 and has also
tranche of low-interest financing for the BRUP worked on several projects at the Daura refinery
scheme. This will increase throughput capacity near Baghdad and for NRC – the operator of the
at the Shuaiba facility from the current 210,000 beleaguered Baiji refinery.
bpd to 280,000 bpd, below an earlier MoO esti- BRUP forms part of wider efforts by SRC to
mate of 300,000 bpd. more than quadruple its refining capacity from
JICA has now provided four loans for the 270,000 bpd at present to 1.19mn bpd, plans
project – a first tranche of $379mn, a second which include the development of greenfield
tranche of $994mn, $19mn for engineering ser- units in Nassiriyah, Missan and Dhi Qar.
vices, the third tranche of $300mn and the latest Iraq has a current refining slate of around
instalment. 728,000 bpd, and Baghdad intends to raise this
This follows a mid-2019 agreement with Iraq’s to more than 2.5mn bpd, though several of the
Ministry of Finance for a $1bn loan to upgrade projects discussed have been in planning for a
the refinery, which was built in the 1970s. decade with very little progress.™

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