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Image used for illustrative purpose. A worker wears a protective mask, following an outbreak of coronavirus, at Nahr Bin Umar oil field, north of Basra, Iraq March 15, 2020.
OPEC member Iraq has kicked off a project to repair its largest oil refinery that was severely damaged during the war seven years ago, officials have said.
Baiji Refinery in Saladin Governorate North of the capital Baghdad produced nearly a third of Iraq’s refining capacity before it sustained heavy damage during the war in 2014 between government forces and the Islamic State group (Daesh).
The project, which was launched in May, is expected to be completed at the end of 2024 and the refinery is expected to return to its pre-war 120,000-bpd output, said Hamid Yunus, Undersecretary for Refining at the Oil Ministry.
“Baiji Refinery suffered damage of more than 90 percent during the conflict…we are racing against time to finish rehabilitation work and expect it to be completed before the end of next year,” Yunus said in a statement published by Baghdad Alyoum website and other Iraqi publications on Wednesday.
The Refinery’s manager Adnan Hamoud said phase 1 of the rehabilitation project involves debris clearing, adding that phase 2 would begin this year and it will include maintenance, construction and operation.
(Writing by Nadim Kawach; Editing by Anoop Menon)
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