Iraq Plans to Construct 5 New Refineries with 790000 bpd Capacity

The Iraqi Ministry of Oil has announced its plan to choose a number of specialized international investment companies to build five new refineries with 790,000 bpd Capacity around the country.

Hamid al-Zobaie, the ministry’s official, said in a press statement there is a plan to build five refineries across the country through investment and various refining cards, pointing out that the ministry is currently looking for fitted companies to build these refineries.

Zobaie added that qualification and selection processes depend on studying technical and financial capabilities of the companies, especially that the construction of the refinery requires up to USD3 billion. Applying companies must also commit to the deadlines and ensure completion of construction within the schedule.
They also clarify that they need to know the capabilities of companies which will bid for such projects since one refinery requires a funding coverage of up to $3 billion. They also want to make sure these companies will comply with the schedule for the project completion as well as their experience in such projects.

Theoretically, there is no reason why Iraq cannot become one of the leading producers of petrochemicals in the world, given its tremendous reserves of oil and gas. Finally, with a relatively low oil price complex and its crude exports falling in October, Iraq appears to be making some advances on moving its long-stalled push into the petchems sector forward.

Source: https://oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-General/Can-Iraq-Become-A-World-Class-Petrochemicals-Player.html