Oil Ministry announces refinery investment opportunities — but no policy overhaul

Iraq's Oil Ministry is reviving a push to increase the country’s refining capacity by more than half a million barrels per day, although there is no indication the government is addressing fundamental problems with an investment framework that has long failed to attract top international companies.

Oil Minister Hayyan Abdulghani said in a statement last week that Iraq will soon be offering a number of investment opportunities both to expand five existing refineries and to build one new one. The statement said the tender process would begin "after the completion of papers and information on the refineries."