Iraq has nearly completed a $4.8 billion oil refining project funded by Japan as part of the OPEC member’s post-conflict plan to rehabilitate its hydrocarbon industry.

The project in the southern oil hub of Basra is the largest refining scheme in the Middle East to be financed by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), which has provided the funds in tranches for the project’s six phases.

“The project to upgrade and develop Basra oil refinery has reached its final stage,” Japan’s ambassador in Iraq Akira Endo told the state-owned Iraqi News Agency.

The project, which involves the installation of a fluid catalytic cracking (FCC) unit, is designed to upgrade heavy fuel oil into higher-value gasoline and other products, boosting the refinery’s efficiency and output.

Once completed, Basra refinery will produce more than 200,000 barrels per day of gasoline, diesel, LPG and other refined products.

Japan’s JGC Corporation was appointed the project’s Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) contractor in 2020.

The Project Management Consultancy (PMC) contract was awarded to a partnership of France’s Technip and Japanese engineering consultant UNICO in August 2015.

(Writing by N Saeed; Editing by Anoop Menon)

(anoop.menon@lseg.com)

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