Najaf Refinery Gets 3rd Production Unit In Iraq

SINAN SALAHEDDIN

BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraq's Oil Ministry has opened a third production unit at a refinery south of Baghdad, bringing the complex's refining capacity to 30,000 barrels per day, a spokesman said Sunday.

Assem Jihad also announced plans to invite foreign oil companies to develop two oil fields in southern Iraq in a frame of service contracts.

The Najaf refinery's new 10,000-barrels unit, which was inaugurated Saturday, will help meet the demand for petroleum products such as kerosene and heating oil amid shortages in central and southern Iraq, Jihad said.

Iraq has refining capacity of over 400,000 barrels per day, but still needs to import another 60,000 barrels of refined product a year according to the State Oil Marketing Organization statistics that released last year.

The refinery, about 100 miles (160 kilometers) south of Baghdad was built in October 2006 as part of a plan to build small refineries to curtail the shortfall in petroleum products that has forced Iraq since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion to turn to imports from neighboring countries.