Iraq will soon begin inviting investors for the construction of a 100,000 barrels per day (bpd) oil refinery in its Eastern Wasit Governorate, its governor was quoted on Monday as saying.
Mohammed Al-Mayahi said he was told by Iraq’s Oil Minister Hayan Abdul Ghani that the Ministry would soon offer the project in Kut city to investors.
“The Minister has promised that this project will be shortly offered to investors… there is no doubt the refinery will turn the governorate into an industrial zone,” Mayahi said, quoted by Baghdad Al-Yaum news network and other Iraqi publications.
He gave no details of the project, but Iraqi officials said in 2022 that the refinery, south of the capital Baghdad, is one of several crude oil processing projects offered by the Arab country as part of plans to achieve self-sufficiency in oil products.
Oil Minister Hayyan Abdulghani (center) tours the Karbala refinery on Jan. 8, 2022. (Source: Iraq Oil Ministry) Iraq to Build Three Major Refineries
The Kut project is one of three oil refineries offered as Public-Private Partnership (PPP) projects either on a build–operate–operate (BOO) or build–own–operate–transfer (BOOT) basis. The other two include a 70,000 bpd refinery in Samawah near the border with Saudi Arabia and a 150,000 bpd unit in the southern Nasiriyah city.
Iraq’s legal and commercial frameworks have failed to clinch a major refinery investment deal for 15 years, but a new government is poised to try again.
