Page 11 - DMEA Week 34 2021
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DMEA REFINING DMEA
Japan formalises funding
for Basra refinery work
MIDDLE EAST JAPAN this week formalised a previous agree- of $379mn, a second tranche of $994mn and
ment to provide a low-interest loan to Iraq for $19mn for engineering services.
the Basra Refinery Upgrading Project (BRUP) It added: “the project to construct Iraq’s first-
on which work began earlier this year. ever FCC complex will unleash the potential
Speaking with his Iraqi counterpart during of Iraq’s refining sector to produce the larger
a meeting in Baghdad this week, Japanese For- volume of the high-value outputs, promote the
eign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi said that Tokyo transfer of refining technologies from Japan and
would extend up to $300mn in loans to assist help save valuable foreign currencies [needed] to
with the project, which will increase refining import huge amount of fuels”.
capacity from the current level of 210,000 barrels The MoO has previously said that capacity
per day to 280,000 bpd. would be expanded to 300,000 bpd.
Funding will be provided by the Japan Inter- The latest expansion follows successful com-
national Cooperation Agency (JICA) and fol- pletion in January 2020 of a project to expand the
lows a mid-2019 agreement with Iraq’s Ministry Shuaiba facility from 140,000 bpd by Czech firm
of Finance for a $1bn loan to upgrade the refin- Technoexport under an EPC contract awarded
ery, which was built in the 1970s. in 2015, which also covered increasing the out-
In October last year state-owned South Refin- put of higher-quality fuels.
eries Co. (SRC) awarded a $3.75bn engineering, Technoexport completed the installation of
procurement and construction (EPC) to Japan’s a crude distillation unit at the facility in 2013
JGC to build a new fluid catalytic cracking (FCC) and of a catalytic reformer in 2007, and has also
complex on land adjacent to the existing refinery worked on several projects at the Daura refinery
at Shuaiba. At that point, JICA said it had con- near Baghdad and for NRC – the operator of the
cluded three loans for the project – a first tranche beleaguered Baiji refinery.
Week 34 26•August•2021 www. NEWSBASE .com P11
