The Iraqi prime minister opened the northern refinery in the Beji district of Salahaddin province after it had been inactive for ten years.
The PM’s press office said Iraqi Prime Minister Mohamed Shia al-Sudani reopened the northern refinery in Beji after repairs that had disrupted it for more than ten years.
During the fight against the Islamic State (ISIS) in 2014, the northern refinery in Beji district was destroyed due to the fighting between the Iraqi army and ISIS.
The opening ceremony was attended by Oil Minister Hayyan Abdul Ghani, Haibat Halbusi, Chairman of the Oil and Gas Committee of the Iraqi Parliament, and several other government officials.
In 2021, the Northern Refinery Company in Beji announced plans to increase the refinery’s production capacity to 140,000 barrels per day. The plan was to add two new refining units, one to refine gasoline better.
The Northern Refinery Company is one of 16 companies affiliated with the Iraqi Oil Ministry and headquartered in Tikrit. The company was established in 1976.
The company produces all types of fuels, such as “lean gasoline, jet fuel, kerosene, diesel, crude oil, gasoline and gas engine oil, electrical transformer oil, bitumen, and liquefied gas products.
In mid-August 2023, the Iraqi Oil Ministry announced that the lost equipment of the Northern Refinery in Beji had been returned after the occupation of the refinery by ISIS.
“The equipment was in the Kurdistan Region and was placed as scrap materials, and some of the equipment was not used because it was built specifically for the northern oil refinery,” the ministry said.
The ministry added that the equipment was transported with the cooperation and efforts of all parties and pointed to the official assistance of the Kurdistan Region in the return of the equipment.
The statement came after Sudani announced on August 16, 2023, that a large part of the stolen equipment worth hundreds of millions of dollars had been recovered from the Beji refinery.
Sudani confirmed the Oil Ministry’s statement that the equipment was in the Kurdistan Region but did not identify any buyer or seller.
