Page 13 - MEOG Week 03 2021

MEOG PROJECTS & COMPANIES MEOG

Iraq doubles capacity

of Sumood oil refinery

IRAQ IRAN has nearly doubled the capacity of the capacity to 280,000 bpd. Japan’s JGC was hired in
Sumood oil refinery in Baiji to 140,000 barrels August to build fluid catalytic cracking, vacuum
per day (bpd) following rehabilitation work, its distillation and diesel desulphurisation units at
oil ministry said on January 11. the site for $3.75bn.
Sumood was once Iraq’s second-largest refin- Iraq’s oil ministry also said in September
ery, operating at a throughput rate of 310,000 it planned to build new processing units at its
bpd. But it was severely damaged during the ISIS 20,000 bpd Qayara refinery in the north of
invasion and occupation beginning in 2014, and the country, lifting its capacity to 90,000 bpd.
again when it was retaken by Iraqi government The plant had been running on heavy oil from
troops in 2015. Oil Minister Ihsan Abdul Jabbar the nearby Qayara oilfield but is no longer in
said in September that its working capacity was operation.
only 75,000 bpd. Iraq has unveiled a raft of new refining
In a statement, the ministry said the plant projects in recent years, in an effort to expand
would be restored to its previous capacity of fuel production and reduce its import bill. But
280,000 bpd. This will require significant repairs most of these schemes have failed to secure
at its 170,000-bpd Northern Plant unit. The gov- investment.
ernment has optimistically set a completion date Only one greenfield project in Iraq’s south,
for this work of 2023. the 140,000 bpd Karbala refinery, has progressed,
Iraq’s only fully functional refinery is the many because it has been funded entirely from
210,000 bpd Shuaiba plant near Basra, which the Iraqi budget. It was first conceived in 2007
is undergoing expansion work that will raise its and is not expected on stream until 2023.™

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