IRAQ - The Daura Refinery.

Operated by the Midland Refineries Co. (MRC), the Daura refinery is located just outside Baghdad. In early 2005 the MRC issued a tender for a contract to supply and install a 10,000 b/d light naphtha isomerisation unit for its Daura refinery. International contractors had until April 18 to bid for the contract, which will be awarded on either a lump-sum turnkey (LSTK) or engineering and procurement basis. UOP of the US is the technology provider. A similar tender was issued in late 2004 for the smaller Qayarah refinery in the north.

The Daura refinery was in 1996 expanded to almost 130,000 b/d. But due to a lack of spare parts, its actual capacity has since fallen to 110,000 b/d. In April 2003 boiler tubes began to get ruptured because of a deteriorating quality of water from the Tigris River fed into the refinery. Before the 1990 Gulf crisis, contracts had been awarded to Technoexport of the former USSR and UOP to build units for isomerisation, gasoil desulphurisation and lube oil production at Daura.

Daura was built by a US team of Foster Wheeler and Kellogg, Brown & Root (KBR), the latter now being a unit of Halliburton which has been a main contractor for the Pentagon in Iraq (see OMT). It is said that Halliburton now intends to sell KBR.

The Baiji refining complex in the north suffers from frequent breakdowns. Its crude distillation capacity has been rebuilt to exceed pre-war levels. Some parts have been purchased. But its hydrocracking, reforming and desulphurisation units were not operating when the latest war began in March 2003.

Beiji is an area which has been attacked frequently by Sunni insurgents in the past two years. Pipelines into and from Beiji have been sabotaged frequently. The saboteurs seem to be professional, allegedly including Baathist technicians who under Saddam's regime used to work in the petroleum sector.

Only one of two lubricant plants at Baiji has been working and this has lost 20% of its efficiency. Like the Daura refinery, there have been boiler problems at Baiji causing serious bottlenecks.

The refineries at Haditha, Khanaqin/Alwand, and Muftiah have been cannibalised for spare parts. A very small refinery at Amarah came on stream in May 1998. It was built out of parts removed from cannibalised plants. As a result, the refinery has had frequent breakdowns.