Iraq's prime minister on Friday inaugurated a major oil refinery in Baiji in the hydrocarbon-rich north of the country, a new project designed to allow the government to reduce its dependence on fuel imports.
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This refining unit, with a processing capacity of 150,000 barrels per day (bpd), had been reduced to rubble during fighting between the jihadists of the Islamic State (IS) group and the Iraqi security forces between June 2014 and October 2015, resulting in the expulsion of the jihadist group from Baiji.
Prime Minister Mohamed Chia al-Soudani welcomed a “vital project” and assured on Friday that the refinery was a further step towards self-sufficiency and should help the country “stop all imports of petroleum derivatives”, a goal that the authorities want to achieve by Achieve by mid-2025 through the introduction of additional infrastructure.
“Unfortunately, Iraq, known for its oil wealth and producing four million barrels a day, imports petroleum derivatives,” the head of government recalled during an inauguration ceremony broadcast on public television.
Authorities say Iraq, devastated by decades of conflict that have brought its infrastructure to its knees, imports about half of its needs for fuel, gasoline and other petroleum derivatives.
Baïji and its region, 200 km north of Baghdad, were once Iraq's industrial flagship, with several refineries and thermal power plants as well as a railway hub and an oil pipeline junction. As a result, there was significant looting in the city and Baïji was declared a disaster area by Parliament in 2016.
Built in 1975, the complex was capable of refining between 250,000 and 300,000 barrels per day before the war.
Today, after Friday's inauguration, the complex's “effective refining capacity” is 250,000 bpd per day, oil ministry spokesman Assem Jihad told AFP, recalling that two processing units had already been restarted in recent years .
In addition, “refineries in the south were expanded with the addition of new units, reaching a refining capacity of 280,000 bpd,” he added, referring to refineries in Basra.
In April 2023, authorities inaugurated a refinery in Karbala (centre), which will ultimately reach a processing capacity of 140,000 bpd.
Iraq is the second-largest producer in the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), with nearly 4 million barrels per day (bpd). Black gold accounts for 90% of its sales.