Another refinery put to work in southern Iraq

 

Azzaman, October 26, 2005

 

The refinery in the southern province of Dhiqar is back on stream and churning 10,000 barrels a day.

 

The refinery is one of several other small refining units built to meet domestic needs of major cities.

 

The State Contract Company rehabilitated the refinery which currently produces gasoline, kerosene and fuel oil, the company said in a statement.

 

It said the repairs were carried out in close cooperation with the Ministry of Oil.

 

“The company has signed a new contract with the Oil Ministry to construct five new small refining units in the country,” the statement added.

 

Iraq, the world’s second largest in oil reserves, has enormous refining problems.

 

It currently spends hundreds of millions of dollars on fuel imports from neighboring countries with its major refineries working below capacity mainly due to acts of sabotage.

 

The Oil Ministry intends to build a small refinery in each of the country’s provinces to alleviate demand pressure on major refining complexes in Baiji in the north and Basra in the south.

 

The Housing and Reconstruction Ministry now shoulders most of Iraqi post-war reconstruction tasks in the absence of foreign contractors who left the country following a spate of kidnapping and beheading of foreign nationals.

 

The ministry runs six construction firms which under former leader Saddam Hussein used to carry out major schemes such the building of bridges, dams as well as palaces.

 

The companies are currently mainly involved the reconstruction of cities, villages and installations that are damaged due to U.S. military operations or attacks by anti-U.S. groups.