Baghdad: The Iraqi Minister of Oil on Thursday announced that the oil ministry reopened al-Seniyah Refinery in the province of Salahudin after rehabilitation by Iraqi technical teams, a ministry statement said.
The national teams in the government-owned North Refineries Company (MRC) “managed to rehabilitate the refinery, which was destroyed by the Islamic State when the group seized some of Salahudin’s cities and caused damages to its (oil) installations,” the statement quoted its minister Jabbar Luaiby as saying, XInhua news agency reported.
The refinery currently is working with capacity of 20,000 barrels per day, Luaiby said.
“This refinery will provide quantities of oil derivatives to cover the needs of the province, whether for the use of citizens or to operate power plants,” he said.
The rehabilitation of the refinery is part of the oil ministry’s plans to rebuild Salahudin’s provincial oil installations, including the refineries, according to the statement.
Al-Seniyah oil refinery and the nearby Iraq’s largest refinery of Baiji, some 200 km north of the Iraqi capital of Baghdad, were badly damaged by the Islamic State militants when they seized large swathes of territories in northern and western Iraq in June 2014.
After more three years of battles, the Iraqi forces have retaken most of the occupied areas from the terrorist IS group, including the cities of Salahudin province and the country’s second largest city .
—IANS