Iraq finalizes $8 billion Fao refinery deal

Iraq has signed a contract with the state-owned China National Chemical Engineering Co. (CNCEC) for a 300,000 barrel per day (bpd) refinery to be built at the Fao depot on the southern coast of Basra.

The Oil Ministry has suffered several false starts in its attempts to build the Fao refinery over the past seven years, but the contract signed in Baghdad on May 15 is a final and binding deal, according to multiple Oil Ministry officials.

The refinery is expected to cost $8 billion, one senior ministry official said, with the total cost of the project rising to $20 billion with the projected construction of a petrochemicals plant and a 2,000 MW power plant. The Iraqi state is a 20 percent stakehodler in the contract.