Refineries and LPG plants struggling along

IRAQI Refineries and LPG plants struggling along

Although oil production in the south has regained pre-war levels, other areas of the infrastructure still require additional work. Iraq’s southern refineries are currently operating below full capacity, with crude throughput at 136,000 b/d, said the director of the Southern Refinery Co, Thair Ibrahim Jabar.

"We are currently operating at 136,000 b/d," Jabar said. "This is below our capacity of 220,000 b/d." He said the 180,000 b/d Basra refinery was operating at 130,000 b/d and the 10,000 b/d Meesan refinery at 6,000 b/d. The 30,000 b/d Nasiriyah refinery is offline until further reconstruction efforts are implemented.

The country’s southern refineries need spare parts and additional reconstruction work. The USACE has installed generators in the refineries in an effort to provide stable electricity generation because the national grid continues to experience daily blackouts.

The refinery problems have forced Iraq to turn to neighboring Kuwait and Iran for product imports, especially of gasoline, which has been in short supply in post-war Iraq.

The country’s liquid petroleum gas production, used widely for cooking, also remains below capacity.

South Gas Co production manager Abdul Rouf Ibrahim said current LPG output stood at 1,200mt/day. This includes 700mt/day of commercial propane and 500mt/day of commercial butane. The gas processing facilities at Khor Al-Zubair, 30 km from Iraq’s southern city of Basra, also produce 200mt/day of natural gasoline.

This is far short of the pre-war levels of 3,200mt/day of LPG and 400-500mt/day of
natural gasoline seen before the US-led invasion last March.

"But nothing has really been done to got back to these levels," Ibrahim noted.

In the north, the pace of the reconstruction process has been slowed by instability. But USACE’s Steve Wright said project work continued on key infrastructure.

For an extensive review of IRAQ and its energy situation visit:

http://www.platts.com/Oil/Resources/News%20Features/iraq/h3.html