State-owned North Refineries Co (NRC) said on 18 December that it has expanded CDU capacity at Saladin province’s Sainia refinery from 30,000 b/d to 50,000 b/d. NRC says the project added two 10,000 b/d crude processing units, bringing the total to five with work delivered in six months. Iraq’s refining capacity had already risen above 1mn b/d this year following the gradual ramp up of the 140,000 b/d Karbala refinery, rehabilitation of Baiji’s 150,000 b/d North (Shamal) refinery and upgrades to the 280,000 b/d Basrah refinery (MEES, 16 February). This helped end mid-distillate imports this year, but gasoline self-sufficiency remains elusive with data intelligence firm Kpler putting imports thus far in 2024 slightly above 2023 levels of 66,000 b/d. The country’s refinery fleet continues to produce extremely high fuel oil yields, with the addition of secondary units urgently needed to produce higher-value fuels.