Iraqi Oil Ministry, anxious to reduce the country's dependence on imported foreign oil refined products, intends to build two new refineries in the provinces of Karbala and Missan. The Karbala refinery will refine up to 140.000 barrels per day and the one in Missan up to 150,000 bpd.
On 3 October Iraq's Oil Ministry reported that the country remains unable to produce enough oil and gas to meet indigenous demands. While Iraq produces 8 million liters of liquid gas per day, it consumes approximately 12 million liters. As regards oil, while Iraq produces 12 million liters of refined oil every day, another 12 million liters have to be imported from international markets to meet domestic demand.
Furthermore, while Iraq's Oil Ministry has repeatedly announced plans to quintuple the country's oil production from 2009's level of 2.5 million bpd to 12 million bpd within the next five years, there would still not be enough refineries to process the crude oil into usable fuel, AK News-Kurdistan News Agengy-Iraqi Independent News reported.
Before the March 2003 U.S.-led invasion to topple the regime of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, Iraq's daily oil production was 2.6 million bpd.
By. Charles Kennedy, Deputy Editor OilPrice.com
Charles is a writer for Oilprice.com More