Business | Oil & Gas

Production resumes at Iraq refinery

Iraq, the holder of the world's third-largest crude oil reserves, resumed production at the Baiji refinery after an explosion yesterday killed one engineer and injured several other people.

  • Bloomberg
  • Published: 00:09 January 9, 2008
  • Gulf News

Baghdad: Iraq, the holder of the world's third-largest crude oil reserves, resumed production at the Baiji refinery after an explosion yesterday killed one engineer and injured several other people.

The refinery was operating at 200,000 barrels a day after firefighters extinguished the blaze, Iraqi Oil Ministry spokesman Asim Jihad said today by telephone from Baghdad. The fire was caused by a "technical fault" at the plant's liquid petroleum gas unit, which was undergoing maintenance.

The Baiji refinery has a capacity of 310,000 barrels a day, according to the US Energy Information Administration. The facility, 180 kilometres north of Baghdad, had been running at about 75 per cent of capacity because of repeated disruptions and power cuts, according to the EIA's Web site.

The country has relied on its neighbours to help meet demand for oil products since the US-led invasion in 2003. Iraq's refining capacity is 570,000 barrels a day, including 110,000 barrels a day from the Daura plant in Baghdad and 150,000 barrels a day from the Basra refinery in the south, according to the US energy administration.

Iraq has 115 billion barrels of proven oil reserves, behind Saudi Arabia and Iran, BP Plc figures show. Iraq produced 2.34 million barrels of oil a day in December, according to Bloom-berg estimates.

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