* Calls intensify for refinery build
BAGHDAD, Jan. 23 (AKnews) – Iraq’s refineries are unable to supply the country with oil products says the Oil and Energy Committee of the Council of Representatives. The committee has called on the government to pump investment into building new refineries.
Committee member Furat al-Sharei told AKnews there are obstacles and administrative, legal and technical problems getting in the way of providing locals with petroleum products. Therefore he explains, Iraq must pay a premium to import from neighbors.
“Investment must be allowed to exploit the oil wealth in the country.”
The Oil Ministry announced that it decided to build the Karbala and Muthanna refineries according to a deferred payment system, pending ratification of the infrastructure law.
This draft infrastructure law stipulates foreign companies, especially Korean, take on infrastructure projects like refineries, schools, hospitals, water projects according to a deferred payment system.
The Council rejected this infrastructure legislation during its last session. Had it been passed large investment companies would have been granted infrastructure projects worth $70 billion USD (81.6 trillion IQD).
Iraq wants to up its oil production in the next five years to 12 million barrels of oil per day. At present Iraq produces around 2.5 million bopd. Reaching the ambitious 12 million bopd target will require boosting production by 9.5 million barrels, or almost 400%.
OPEC has given tacit approval to Iraq’s ambitions to increase production. With estimates of over 115 billion barrels in reserves, Iraq is believed to be the second largest oil country, after Saudi Arabia and before Russia.
By Jaafar al-Wannan
RN/JS/AKnews
The * Calls intensify for refinery build by Dinar Daddy's Tidbits, unless otherwise expressly stated, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
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