Iraq’s oil ministry restarted operations at its 140,000 b/d Karbala refinery on 23 October following completion of the facility’s month-long annual turnaround. Maintenance began in mid-September and the ministry’s deputy for refining affairs, Hamid Younes, says units will gradually ramp up to produce products “within days.”
However, an oil ministry source tells MEES that even after restart the plant will be operating at 50% capacity “as four of its eight heat exchanger units will stay offline and require extensive maintenance.” Karbala was commissioned last year despite underlying equipment problems, including corrosion at heat exchangers which has already led to the refinery being taken offline on multiple occasions. The latest outage in April was also linked to heat exchangers (MEES, 5 April). The refinery’s month-long turnaround coincided with seasonal maintenance at other refineries, leading to recent gasoil/diesel shortages in Iraq (MEES, 11 October). (CONTINUED - 200 WORDS)