The Kurdish Regional Government's biggest refinery by capacity will become operational in September, an official said Wednesday.
'This facility has the capacity to refine two million liters of gasoline and 300,000 liters of diesel per day,' Ghalib Mohammed Ali, head of the Oil and Gas Committee of the Sulaymaniyah Provincial Council, told Anadolu Agency.
The $500 million refinery is built on an area of 131 decares (32.4 acres) in the Dukan district of Sulaymaniyah in northeastern Iraq. The decision to begin construction was taken in 2006, however most of the refinery was built in the last two years, with 95 percent of the facility currently completed.
Iraq is facing major shortages since the biggest oil refinery in the country, Baiji in Iraq’s Saladin province, fell under the control of Daesh militants in June 2014.
Daily gasoline consumption in Sulaymaniyah reaches 2.5 million liters a day, and according to Ali, 'when this refinery becomes operational, the fuel shortage crisis in the region will be resolved.'
At the moment, both the KRG and the central government in Baghdad are importing refined oil from Turkey and Iran to deal with shortages of petroleum, fuel oil and refined products.
Despite having rich oil resources and increasing crude production, there are only three major refineries in northern Iraq -- Erbil in the north, Sulaymaniyah in the northeast, and Duhok in the farthest north.
The KRG also plans to build one oil refinery in each of these provinces, each with a 50,000 barrel capacity (8 million liters) per day, the Vice President of the Oil and Gas Commission in the KRG parliament, Roza Mahmud, told Anadolu Agency on July 23.
There are a total of 58 oil wells in the Kurdish region of northern Iraq -- 28 in Sulaymaniyah and 30 in Erbil and Duhok -- while a total of 25 foreign oil companies are operating in the region, the largest being the Anglo-Turkish Genel Energy company.
Reporting by Idris Okuducu
Writing by Ovunc Kutlu
Anadolu Agency
ovunc.kutlu@aa.com.tr