[Editor’s note: The story was updated on June 2, 2023}
Iraq is going full throttle in its oil and gas development and held a resumption ceremony for a project award to a Chinese firm to build a crude oil depot for export with a capacity of around 3.2 million barrels, Zawya reported, citing Iraqi officials.
The contractor will build the storage facility in Nasiriyah city in the Southern Dhi Qar Governorate, they said.
It will be built on an area of around 2.5 million square metres, project manager Ali Ibrahim said in a statement published on Monday by Aliqtisad News and other Iraqi publications.
Ibrahim said the facility would comprise seven large storage tankers, including four tankers for heavy crude and four for light crude.
He noted that the project aims to pump crude through a pipeline to Faw Port, which is under construction in South Iraq.
“Crude will then be exported through Arabian Gulf ports….there are also plans to transport crude from the storage tankers through pipelines to refineries and power plants in central and North Iraq,” Ibrahim said, adding that the project is expected to be completed in the second quarter of 2025.
