Iraq lets contract for Karbala refinery

June 25, 2015
Iraq’s State Co. for Oil Projects (SCOP), through a contractor, has let a contract to Nexans, Paris, to provide the low-voltage cable system for the country’s long-planned, grassroots refinery under construction in southern Karbala Province, south of Baghdad.

Iraq’s State Co. for Oil Projects (SCOP), through a contractor, has let a contract to Nexans, Paris, to provide the low-voltage cable system for the country’s long-planned, grassroots refinery under construction in southern Karbala Province, south of Baghdad (OGJ Online, Aug. 1, 2011).

As part of the agreement, Nexans will manufacture, supply, and deliver 3,500 km of low-voltage cables equipped with PVC hydrocarbon resistance for the project, the company said.

The cables, which will be manufactured at Nexans’ plants in South Korea and Turkey, are due for delivery to Karbala beginning in January 2016, with final deliveries scheduled to take place by 2017, Nexans said.

A value of the contract was not disclosed.

This latest order 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 planned 140,000-b/d 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).

The Karbala refinery is scheduled to be commissioned in 2020, according to Nexans.

SCOP previously awarded a contract to Doosan Hydro Technology LLC (DHT), Tampa, Fla., to provide water treatment services for the Karbala project (OGJ Online, Apr. 8, 2015).