Page 4 - DMEA Week 05 2022

DMEA COMMENTARY DMEA

Updates abound from

Iraq’s downstream

Iraq is maintaining momentum in its downstream sector
as the upstream works to ramp up feedstock availability.

MIDDLE EAST AS Iraq pushes forward with its plans to raise sector companies.
oil and gas production, progress continues to be The facility was built with an original two
made on a downstream expansion of a similar units in 1953 and was later expanded to four, tak-
WHAT: scale. ing the theoretical throughput capacity to 20,000
While major greenfield More than 1.1mn barrels per day (bpd) of bpd. It uses feedstock from the nearby Qayyarah
refineries are planned, refining capacity is planned across at least 10 oilfield, which is operated by Angola’s Sonangol,
Iraq is also upgrading refineries, while Baghdad is rapidly ramping up to generate asphalt. The field has a production
older, smaller units to the availability of feedstock through projects to capacity of 25,000-30,000 bpd.
keep them running. raise oil output by 3mn bpd by 2027 alongside a Hussein said that there “are no technical
‘free gas’ licensing round and efforts to improve problems in the refinery, as the engineering cad-
WHY: the capture of associated gas. res continue to operate and maintain the units, as
Of the planned new Aside from these expansions, the country is well as monitor the environmental parameters”.
refineries, only the also carrying out rehabilitation work to keep age- The news follows the signing of a contract
140,000 bpd Karbala unit ing units in service and this week saw announce- in September 2021 between NRC, Swedish
has made real progress ments about two such facilities while Iraq’s first firm SEAB and Limak Holding of Turkey for
and it is expected to come major petrochemical unit is coming into view. investment to construct a greenfield 70,000 bpd
on stream later this year. refinery at Qayyarah which is seen replacing the
Qayyarah capacity existing unit.
WHAT NEXT: The state-owned North Refineries Co. (NRC) At the time, the signatories said their deal
The giant Nebras announced this week that the Qayyarah refinery provided a “roadmap for an investment con-
petrochemical facility is near Mosul is operating at a capacity of 6,000 bpd tract” for the development of the facility. The
also edging forward with having been offline for much of 2021. value of the project has not yet been disclosed,
support from Shell and Speaking to the Iraqi News Agency, NRC and the companies were due to submit their
Saudi Arabia’s SABIC. director-general Qassem Hussein said that the technical and financial scoping for the develop-
refinery’s units 3 and 4 are currently operational ment in December.
with a combined capacity of 6,000 bpd. Bids were previously invited in 2018 for the
He added: “The Qayyarah Refinery is development of a 100,000 bpd facility in the city
designed to produce asphalt that conforms to around 80 km south of Mosul, though follow-
standard specifications, as well as to produce ing an extension to the deadline because of weak
heavy gas oil, a mixture of light gas oil and naph- interest the scheme faded into obscurity.
thalene,” which are supplied via the Oil Products Another of the country’s smaller units, a
Distribution Co. (OPDC) to state and private 30,000 bpd facility at Najaf, 160 km south of

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