Iraq to Build Refinery in Kirkuk

Iraq is set to build an oil refinery of 150,000 barrels per day processing capacity in the northern city of Kirkuk, according to Iraqi Oil Minister Thamer Ghadhban.  
The ministry said it had “put the final touches” on building the refinery in Kirkuk, which will have a capacity of 150,000 bpd, Ghadhban said in a statement on Monday after visiting Kirkuk, Oil Price reported.
Several Iraqi ministers visited Kirkuk this weekend to meet the governor of the province and discuss new projects and plans that have stalled, some of which were in the oil and electricity sectors.
Ghadhban stressed the importance of Kirkuk to the Iraqi federal government. Last November, Iraq resumed oil exports from Kirkuk province, a year after it had stopped oil flows from the area due to a dispute with the semi-autonomous Kurdistan region.
Around 300,000 bpd of crude oil that were previously pumped in Kirkuk Province and exported to the Turkish port of Ceyhan were shut in October 2017 when the Iraqi federal government moved to take control of the oil fields in Kirkuk from Kurdish forces after the semi-autonomous region held a referendum that Baghdad did not recognize. 
However, the only export outlet for Kirkuk oil is the oil pipeline of the Kurdistan Regional Government. The Iraqi federal government and KRG had been in talks for months to try to reach an agreement on resuming exports from Kirkuk.
Weeks before the resumption of Iraqi oil exports from Kirkuk province, the KRG said it had upgraded its oil export pipeline, boosting capacity to 1 million bpd from 700,000 bpd, to accommodate future production growth from the region.