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Iraq signs contracts with Czech companies to renew Basra refinery
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Translated by IRAQdirectory.com - [3/18/2009]
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A senior engineer in Basra refinery said that Iraq has dealt with three small Czech companies for the renewal of one of the most important oil refineries in the south, under the country's efforts to modernize the dilapidated infrastructure of the energy sector.
Waheed Salman clarified that contracts are ranging between $ 50 million to 70 million dollars that would strengthen the production capacity of the refinery in Basra, the status of Iraq's main oil.
The current production capacity of the refinery is 160 thousand barrels per day and is being operated by 90 percent of that energy.
Salman stated to the press that Basra refinery is the largest oil refinery in southern Iraq, and these transactions will modernize the refinery's equipment in various ways.
One of the three companies will establish an additional refinery that would help to raise the production capacity at least 70 thousand barrels per day from the refinery which produces gasoline, kerosene, diesel and liquefied petroleum gas.
With the decline of violence in Iraq after nearly six years of the U.S. invasion, the country began to intensify efforts to revive the oil sector, which suffers from a severe lack of investment; those efforts include enhancing the productive capacity of refineries.
Iraq was able this year to refine amounts of benzene are enough for local transportation purposes, as the country kept importing fuel for many years since the U.S. invasion in 2003. Iraq produces about 2.4 million barrels of crude oil per day.
Iraq will soon invite foreign companies to bid for a contract worth more than a billion dollars to construct and install a catalytic cracking unit for liquids inside Baiji refinery, the largest oil refineries in the north and the initial production capacity of 320 thousand barrels per day.
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