Iraq's exports have long been constrained by a lack of sufficient storage capacity. Projects to rejuvenate the port have been ongoing for years.
"The undersecretary for extraction affairs at the oil ministry [Karim Hattab] affirmed the ministry's desire to accelerate the completion and implementation of projects to develop the oil storage depot in al-Faw district in Basra Governorate, which aim to enhance and maintain southern oil exports," the oil ministry said yesterday.
Iraq is planning to expand its storage capacity at al-Faw to hold 24 tanks, each with a capacity of 58,000m3 (365,000 bl), taking total capacity to 8.76mn bl at the key crude export outlet. In March, state-owned Basrah Oil said it planned to add two such 365,000 bl tanks to the six already in place, by the end of this year. It is as yet unclear by when it hopes to complete all 24 tanks.
But this is part of a wider scheme aimed at boosting the crude export capacity from Iraq's southern ports to 6mn b/d by 2023 from around 3.5mn b/d today.
Iraq's state-owned company for oil projects (SCOP) said it is building 16 of the tanks, while Bin Majid, a privately-owned Iraqi firm, will build the remaining eight, SCOP's director general Mahmoud Abbas said.
Hattam said the oil ministry also plans to implement a new marine pipeline project from the al-Faw storage terminal, alongside other "projects aimed at developing export outlets."
Engineering contractors have been waiting for Iraq to issue tenders for a bigger project, adding another 1.8mn b/d of pipeline capacity from al-Faw to the Basra Oil Terminal (BOT). That tender is expected in 2021.
Iraq was hoping to complete its Sea Line 3 export pipeline project, which would raise Iraq's southern export capacity by 700,000 b/d, by the second quarter of this year. But this has been put on hold for now, in part, due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Iraq maintains its nameplate southern export capacity is around 4.6mn b/d, with operational capacity at 3.7mn b/d.
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