BAGHDAD, 16 November 2005 — Iraq plans to boost its fuel production with new oil refineries to counter crippling gasoline shortages and a thriving black market, Oil Minister Ibrahim Bahr Al-Uloum said yesterday. A new refinery at Nassireyah in the south is planned to process 300,000 barrels per day and a plant at Hindeyah, south of Baghdad, will run 140,000 bpd, Uloum said. At least 10 international oil firms are in the race to build the $1 billion Hindeyah project, and the winners will be picked by the end of the year, he said. The refineries will take several years to build. “I have good news, (next month) we will lay the founding stone for the biggest refinery in the Central Euphrates,” Uloum said. Iraq has the world’s third largest known reserves of oil but decades of war, sanctions, under-investment and now widespread violence and sabotage have left it critically short of fuel. It has to import nearly half of its gasoline.
Oil officials say Iraq’s eight refineries are now operating at only 50 percent-75 percent of capacity, a rate of around 300,000 bpd, forcing the country to import most of its refined products. The three largest refineries are Baiji, Basra and Daura plants.
