The Iraqi Ministry of Oil has advanced longstanding plans to build a world-scale refinery at Nassiriya in southern Iraq.
It has let a contract to Foster Wheeler AG for a feasibility study and front-end engineering design of a refinery with capacity of 300,000 b/d.
Plans for a refinery of that scale have been part of the ministry’s rehabilitation of a refining industry ravaged since the 1980s by wars and limited investment.
At the Middle East Petroleum and Gas Conference in Bahrain in 2004, Iraqi officials discussed long-term plans for a 250,000-300,000-b/d grassroots refinery oriented to gasoline production (OGJ, May 17, 2004, p. 31).
Oil & Gas Journal