Iraq Welcomes Foreign Investors in Oil and Refinery Fast-Track Program

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Written by Richard Finlayson, Senior International Editor or Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Iraq is aiming to double its oil production to between 5 million and 6 million barrels per day by 2015. By 2020, the country wants to more than double its domestic oil refining capacity to 1.5 million barrels per day, said Hussein al-Shahristani, the country's deputy minister for energy, at the Iraq refinery conference in London this week.

Acknowledging the need for the full cooperation of international oil companies to reach these targets, the minister said that there was an urgent need to upgrade existing plants and build new refineries to improve self-sufficiency and reduce the country's reliance on expensive imports. He added that current incentives designed to attract investment in refining could be improved by offering guaranteed margins to companies who build plants in Iraq.

At the conference, Deputy Oil Minister Ahmed al-Shamma said that Iraq planned to gradually privatize its oil refineries and attract new investment to meet the growth in domestic demand for fuel.

By upgrading existing refineries, the country plans to increase refining capacity to 610,000 barrels per day by the end of this year, up from 567,000 barrels per day in 2011. The target for 2013 is 750,000 barrels per day. In the medium term, new plants proposed for Kerbala, Missan and Kirkuk would each add 150,000 barrels per day to the supply, while the plant at Nassiriya would add 300,000 barrels, for a total of 750,000 additional barrels per day.

Facilities have been provided to ease the way for investors. Four jetties are being built for jet fuel, fuel oil, gasoline and gasoil, as there was need to fast track the building of the refineries, the deputy minister said.

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