State-owned South Refining Company (SRC) is preparing to tender engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) tenders for a new 30,000 barrel-a-day (b/d) fluid catalyst cracker (FCC) unit at the Basra refinery in the south of Iraq.

Tenders could be launched in June as tender documents are currently being prepared. At the end of January, Rome-based APS Engineering, a subsidiary of Japans JGC was still in the final stages of the front-end engineering and design (feed), a source close to the project tells MEED.

France’s Axens was selected to provide a technology licence for the FCC unit.

The Basra refinery currently has a capacity of 210,000 b/d. The refinery is nearing the completion of its expansion and upgradation plans being executed by Prokop Engineering and Technoexport, both of the Czech Republic, which won EPC deals 2008.

According to SRC, the expansion of the Basra refinery includes:

Iraq is planning to build four new refineries, costing $23bn with a total processing capacity of 740,000 b/d, which would roughly double its existing refinery capacity. The US’ UOP was selected on 25 May to provide technology for several units, including a cracker at the planned Nassiriya refinery, also in the south of Iraq. Design work will begin in the second quarter of 2011 (MEED 26:5:11).

The three current refineries have a combined capacity of 700,000 b/d, along with a number of smaller refineries scattered across the country, although actual output is closer to 500,000 b/d. The largest of these, at 310,000 b/d, is the Baiji refinery in the north of the country.