Agence France-Presse, 06 October 2006
NAJAF, Iraq (AFP) - Iraq is to open a new oil refinery near the Shiite shrine city of Najaf with a modest capacity of 10,000 barrels per day, the oil ministry has said.
The refinery, which would meet the local needs of the inhabitants and factories of Najaf province, would be formally opened on Saturday.
"This is the second refinery to be opened by the oil ministry since April 2003, following the Samawaq refinery," said ministry spokesman Assem Jihad on Friday.
Despite its vast oil resources, Iraq has comparatively modest refining capacity and is forced to import at least a third of its daily petroleum product needs from outside.
The largest refinery in Iraq is north of Baghdad at Baiji, in the insurgent-prone center of the country, where it experiences frequent attacks on pipelines and intimidation of oil tanker drivers.
The Najaf refinery project was begun at the beginning of the year and took nine months to build, said Jihad. It was built by the ministry's Project Implementation Company.
Plans are in place to install new production units to expand capacity.
The ministry has also announced an ambitious move to massively expand the country's fuel production with new huge refineries, all outside the restive central -- and Sunni -- region of the country.
Iraq's known oil reserves are concentrated around the southern Shiite city of Basra and the northern city of Kirkuk, which is claimed by Iraq's Kurdish minority.
In the far north, the 70,000 barrels per day Koia refinery is planned for the town of Kowsinjaq, while the 150,000 bpd Nahrein refinery will be built near Karbala.
In the deep south, not for from the rich oil fields around Basra, a 300,000 bpd refinery is in the works for the city of Nasiriyah.
A tender committee has been established which will now receive bids for the projects.
According to Oil Minister Hussein Shahristani, Iraq produces 10 million liters (2.6 million gallons) of refined petrol and imports another seven million liters (1.8 million gallons) per day, while daily demand is 22 million liters (5.8 million gallons).
Iraq produces around 2.4 million barrels of crude oil per day.
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Citation: "Iraq to open new refinery near Shiite holy city," Agence France-Presse, 06 October 2006.
Original URL: http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20061006/wl_mideast_afp/iraqoilnajaf
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