Karbala Refinery Project

Now under construction, Iraq's State Company of Oil Projects' (SCOP) Karbala Refinery will use state-of-the-art refining processes and automated control to maximise production of liquefied gas, petrol, gas oil, fuel oil, jet fuel and asphalt.

When it opens in 2020, the facility will have a refining capacity of 140,000 barrels of crude oil per day (bpd). Production will meet the latest international standards, serving the growing domestic demand for oil in Iraq and reducing the current level of refined product imports.

The refinery is being developed as part of a joint collaboration between ATCONZ and Invest International, as well as the joint development agreements signed by the Italian and Iraqi governments. Investment for the project is estimated at $6.04bn.

The refinery will help meet the local market demands with better quality gasoline and diesel products, with production also to be used to supply the Khayrat power station that will feed electricity to the Karbala province.

Technip were awarded a $25.38m contract to provide front-end engineering design (FEED) for the Karbala refinery in February 2009. The FEED study was completed in 2010.

Saipem, an Italian engineering firm and subsidiary of Eni, is the technical service provider for the engineering, process plant EPC, as well as training for the operations of the Karbala oil refinery, under a contract awarded in 2011.

The joint venture led by Hyundai Engineering & Construction (HEC) with GS Engineering & Construction and SK Engineering & Construction was awarded the engineering, procurement & construction contract to build the refinery in April 2013. GS Construction is responsible for chemical equipment including vacuum distillation units, while SK Construction will be in charge of utilities. The Hyundai subsidiaries will be responsible for providing petroleum processing facilities.

Technip was further contracted to provide project management consultancy (PMC) services for the EPC phase of the refinery in June 2013. The scope of work includes issue of enquiries for the EPC contract, bids clarification, evaluation and contracts finalisation with the EPC contractors in the first phase, and overall management of the EPC contract execution in the second phase. The first phase of the project will be completed at Technip’s operating centre located in Milton Keynes, UK.