A report released on Thursday by S&P, a prominent economics website, stated that Iraq is close to achieving its goal of becoming a global center for oil refinery. With two additional refineries operating despite the fact that existing plants are operating below capacity, Iraq’s ambitions to expand its refining capacity in order to export more refined products of higher value are now closer to being realized.
“The refining capacity of the second largest oil producer in OPEC, excluding the refineries of the Kurdistan Region, has reached 1,215,000 barrels per day, according to exclusive data from the Iraqi Ministry of Oil,” according to the report, which was translated by
He continued, “There are two new refineries under construction, namely the Faw refinery, which was completed in cooperation with China to add 300,000 barrels per day of capacity, while the Council of Ministers approved on May 7th another refinery in Kirkuk to add 150,000 barrels per day.” Both of these refineries were completed in cooperation with China.
“In June of last year, Iraq finished upgrading the gasoil pipeline from the Shuaiba Projects depot next to the Basra refinery to the southern Khor al-Zubair port to resume gasoil exports, marking the first exports of petroleum products. This marked a significant step forward. This was in addition to the 150,000 bpd North Baiji refinery, which was completed in February, and the brand-new 70,000 bpd crude distillation unit at the Basra refinery, which began operations in December 2023.
“The aim of the refinery expansion is to achieve self-sufficiency in demand for local products and possibly export products, as ministry data showed that Iraq has declared self-sufficiency in gas oil since the beginning of this year and reduced gasoline imports by 50% by March, starting from the end of 2023,” according to the Iraqi Oil Minister Hayan Abdul Ghani.
