IRAQ IS APPROACHING THE COMPLETION OF DOZENS OF OIL PROJECTS AND SPECIALIZED REFINERIES
Economy News – Baghdad
Despite the relative delay and intertwined conditions that the country has witnessed, Iraq is approaching the completion of dozens of oil projects and specialized refineries, which can achieve self-sufficiency for various derivatives and oil products, and thus save billions of dollars that were spent every year, to supply these derivatives from neighboring countries such as gasoline, gas oil and others.
Aging of refineries
Ali Nehme, an expert in oil and energy affairs, said that “most Iraqi refineries suffer from antiquity, so the production of these refineries is mostly heavy products, and even gasoline produced by Iraqi refineries is low-octane in the sense of pumped as regular gasoline in filling stations and perhaps worse, meaning octane between 80-86,” according to the official newspaper.
“As is well known, all modern cars need improved or high-octane gasoline (more than 95), as these types of gasoline produced by Iraq from its refineries do not suit Iraq’s needs, and therefore caused the country to need to import some products as a result of increased demand,” he said.
Heavy acid pads
“Most of the Iraqi oil is medium or heavy, especially Basra oil, and perhaps the best type of oil we have is Kirkuk oil, which reaches 35-36 IBM, compared to some global oil that reaches 40 or more in the countries of the world,” he adds.
“The use of these medium or heavy acid oils in refineries is the basis of obsolete refineries, as their production cannot naturally be like the modern and complex refineries currently in the developed countries of the world, and therefore the majority of their products are heavy products,” Nehme said. “Therefore, we find that there are large quantities of black oil produced by these refineries in excess of Iraq’s needs, and therefore they are exported in exchange for light products, which are imported to compensate for the shortage in demand, which is greatly compounded by the high imports of cars, generators and trucks,” he said.
Modern quality refineries
With Iraq opening some projects or laying the foundation stone for new high-tech projects, such as the Faw refinery, the Karbala refinery, the Najaf refinery and other projects, the country is looking forward to changing this equation and starting to achieve self-sufficiency in some petroleum products and their derivatives, such as gas oil fuel for cars, white oil and liquid gas, and reducing the consumer need for regular and high-octane gasoline fuel.
Haider al-Husseini, director of the Karbala refinery, confirms the refinery’s uniqueness with two advantages, namely the quantity of light products needed by the country and the quality of products, and al-Husseini explained that “what must be focused on is the quality of the product, because the Karbala refinery produces derivatives of the Euro 5 category, which is better than imported from outside Iraq, and therefore this product gives a good addition to the Ministry of Oil.”
White Products
“The aim of building the refinery is to maximize white products, the most important of which is improved and high-octane gasoline, as the refinery is now operating at full capacity and production has entered the local market for many months,” he said.
“The trial operation phase has passed, and the refinery is working at full capacity excellently, and the products have been discharged to the local market for some time successfully, and we have our laboratories in the refinery and all products are within the specifications of international markets,” al-Husseini said.
The Karbala refinery was planned to produce about 9 million liters per day, but al-Husseini points out that “the production of 8 million liters of gasoline, more than 4 million liters of gas oil, as well as 2.5 to 3 million liters of kerosene (white oil), jet fuel and sulfur, as well as asphalt with high purity is unique to the Karbala refinery with qualities that are not found in all joints of the country,” as he described.
Covering the country’s need
The Karbala refinery does not fill the local need for these products in the province of Karbala only, but extends to the provinces of the Middle Euphrates such as Najaf, Babylon and Diwaniyah, and the warehouses withdraw the product from the Karbala refinery, to pump it to other provinces in central and southern Iraq, because of its high quantity and great quality, and it is hoped that it will cover the range of fifty to six 50-60 percent of the country’s need at the present time, and can be increased in the future after adding other units and increasing the production capacity of the refinery, under a plan supervised by the Ministry of Oil.
Jet fuel
As the Karbala refinery is about to expand its production lines of jet fuel and wheel gas, the biggest goal of the refinery is to maximize the production of improved and high-octane gasoline, and reduce the volume of imports in this direction, as well as seeking to develop the production of liquefied gas and jet fuel, and the latter will be one of the most prominent products for the Karbala refinery, due to its direct geographical proximity to Karbala International Airport, and the need for incoming and departing aircraft for this type of fuel.
Self-sufficiency
After reaching this year to meet the consumer need of citizens of white oil, liquid gas and gas oil, the Ministry of Oil plans to be the middle or end of 2024, the deadline to reach meet the consumer need for gasoline, according to Undersecretary for Liquidation Affairs, Hamed Younis Al-Zobaie, who explained, “We have many projects, which we hope after completing to improve and develop the quality of products, such as FCC units and Azmra units, the latter of which will enter work soon.”
Completion of Shuaiba Refinery
At the Shuaiba oil refinery in Basra, the fourth refining unit was inaugurated, with a capacity of 70,000 barrels per day after maintenance operations carried out by our national resources, which saved an amount exceeding three hundred million dollars, which would have been received by Japanese companies if the work was completed.
Hossam Hussein Wali El-Din, General Manager of the South Refineries Company, said: “The work of this refinery was withdrawn from one of the Czech companies implementing the project, as a result of violating the terms of the contract with the Ministry of Oil, but our cadres in the Systems and Control Department of the South Refineries Company were able to carry out this great work and save millions of dollars in hard currency.”
Billions of imports
For its part, the Oil and Gas Committee in the Iraqi Council of Representatives (Parliament) described the continuation of Iraq, a rich oil country, to import oil derivatives in amounts of up to five billion dollars annually, as (defective), because Iraq is the second largest oil exporter after Saudi Arabia, and demanded actual measures to improve the performance of refineries and achieve the country’s self-sufficiency of oil products.
As for the Minister of Oil and Deputy Prime Minister for Energy Affairs, Hayyan Abdul Ghani, he pointed out that the second quarter of 2024, Iraq will achieve self-sufficiency in oil derivatives, adding, “The Karbala refinery now produces more than seven thousand five hundred cubic meters of high-octane gasoline per day, meaning that the purity of gasoline reaches 95, in addition to many other refining products.”
Abdul Ghani pointed out that “this achievement will provide large quantities of white oil products, and when these projects are completed, we will reach the stage of complete sufficiency, God willing,” as the minister put it.
Reducing Imports
With the inauguration of the fourth phase project at the Shuaiba oil refinery, which has a production capacity of seventy thousand barrels per day, and which has been long overdue for the stages of completion, due to maintenance work in it for eight years, national oil engineers hope to find larger development areas, to break what is known as the monopoly of control of foreign companies in the implementation of projects in Iraq.
The entry of many refineries into service with advanced production lines is an important contribution to reducing the import of derivatives and high-octane car fuel, to about half of the country’s daily consumption need, and according to the Ministry of Oil, next year will witness Iraq’s declaration of self-sufficiency in all oil derivatives and fuel, and the closure of the import file after dozens of advanced refineries entered service with large production capacities in most provinces of the country.
No comments:
Post a Comment