The Iraqi Oil Ministry wants to build 2 new refineries in the provinces of Karbala and Missan in order to reduce the country's dependency on foreign oil imports. The one in Karbala will produce up to 140.000 barrels of fuel per day, the one in Missan up to 150,000.

The announcement comes one day after the Oil Ministry reported that Iraq is still not able to produce enough oil and gas to meet its own demands. While Iraq produces 8 million liters of liquid gas per day, it consumes approximately 12 million liters. The situation is even worse as far as oil is concerned 12 million liters of refined oil are produced in Iraq every day however another 12 million liters have to be imported from international markets.

Though the Oil Ministry repeatedly announced plans to quintuple the country's oil production from 2.5 million barrels of oil per day in 2009 to 12 million barrels of oil per day in 2016, there would not be enough refineries to process crude oil into usable fuel.

In a move that seemed to be a panic reaction, the federal Oil Ministry stopped its procedure to provide free fuel to owners of generators this weekend. The procedure had started in June in order to increase private energy production and cost USD 400 million.

(Sourced from AK News)