IRAQ: Iraq to raise oil exports and boost refining in 2009

Record ID: 343848

  • Title: IRAQ: Iraq to raise oil exports and boost refining in 2009
  • Date: 27th January 2009
  • Summary: BAGHDAD, IRAQ (JANUARY 26, 2009) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF DOURA REFINERY (3 SHOTS)
  • Embargoed: 11th February 2009 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Iraq
  • Country: Iraq
  • Topics: Domestic Politics,Energy
  • Reuters ID: LVA2NWOQQF7LX20CB81BXEDPR5VW
  • Story Text: Iraqi Oil Minister Hussain al-Shahristani declares that Iraq will raise oil exports in 2009 and will reach self-sufficiency in oil by 2010.
    Iraq will restore oil exports to two million barrels per day in 2009 and increase its refining capacity to become self sufficient in oil products by the end of the year, Oil Minister Hussain al-Shahristani said on Monday (January 26).
    "We have pledged in the 2009 budget to raise daily crude production and export an average of 2 million barrels per day (bpd), which means a 150,000 bpd increase compared to 2008," Shahristani told a small group of reporters.
    Iraq has had to cut back its spending plans for this year from 80 billion U.S. dollars (USD) to 62 billion because of falling world oil prices.
    Although it has the world's third largest oil reserves, exports have been held back by poor infrastructure, falling last year from 2.0 million bpd in May to
    8 million last month.
    The country also has suffered from insufficient refining capacity, meaning it has in the past had to export crude oil to buy processed fuel.
    "There are efforts being made now to reach self-sufficiency and to produce enough fuel and to improve its quality. Perhaps we cannot reach self-sufficiency (regarding the fuel) by the end of 2009, but we can do so by 2010," said Shahristani.
    He was speaking at the Doura refinery in Baghdad, where he inaugurated a new 70,000 bpd refining unit built by Czech firm Prokop Engineering under a 40 million USD contract.
    The new unit increases the Doura refinery's capacity to 160,000 barrels per day. Shahristani said another 70,000 bpd unit would be opened by the end of the year, raising capacity at the refinery to 230,000 bpd.
    Iraq also intends to ask foreign companies during 2009 to bid for a 1 billion USD contract to build a Fluid Catalytic Cracker unit at its largest refinery Baiji, which would eventually allow it to produce enough refined products to become an exporter.
    Nearly all of Iraq's government revenues come from oil, and the fall in global prices by two-thirds over the past six months has threatened its plans to invest in desperately-needed reconstruction projects.
    The government approved a new draft budget on Sunday that would cut spending in light of falling prices, the second time in three months it has had to slash its spending plans.
    Meeting even those lower targets will depend on improving infrastructure and boosting exports.
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