Iraq lets contract for Karbala refinery

March 27, 2015
Iraq, through a subcontractor, has let a contract to Copperchase Ltd., Cramlington, Northumberland, UK, to build security fencing at the country’s long-planned, grassroots refinery in southern Karbala Province, 100 km south of Baghdad.

Iraq, through a subcontractor, has let a contract to Copperchase Ltd., Cramlington, Northumberland, UK, to build security fencing at the country’s long-planned, grassroots refinery in southern Karbala Province, 100 km south of Baghdad (OGJ Online, Aug. 1, 2011).

Copperchase used a £200,000 ($297,000) loan from Tees Valley Catalyst Fund (TVCF) to secure the performance bond it needed to win the $6-million fencing contract, which was awarded directly by Hyundai Engineering & Construction, according to FW Capital, TVCF’s management company.

This latest contract for the Karbala refinery follows the Iraqi government’s early-2014 award of a $6.04- billion engineering, procurement, and construction contract to a four-company consortium of South Korean companies led by Hyundai Engineering & Construction (OGJ Online, Jan. 9, 2014).

The 140,000-b/d Karbala refinery, on which construction began in February 2014, will produce liquefied gas, gasoline, gas oil, fuel oil, jet fuel, and asphalt meeting international standards equivalent to European production to help meet growing domestic Iraqi demand (OGJ Online, Feb. 26, 2014).

The new refinery is part of Iraq’s longer-term plan to construct four refineries in an effort to add 750,000 b/d of refining capacity. Other planned projects include a 300,000-b/d Nassiriya refinery as well as two additional refineries in Maysan and Kirkuk, each with a capacity of 150,000 b/d (OGJ Online, June 4, 2013).

Last year, UNOS Iraq Ltd., Najaf, a Copperchase company established to provide support services Iraq’a growing oil and gas operations, supplied five heavy-duty centrifugal pumps to state-owned South Refineries Co.’s 140,000-b/d Shuaiba refinery in Basra, UNOS Iraq said in a Sept. 9, 2014, release.

Contact Robert Brelsford at [email protected].