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Iraq to Build 5 New Refineries With 790,000 bpd Capacity

Flames emerge from a pipeline at the oil fields in Basra, southeast of Baghdad, Iraq (File photo: Reuters)
Flames emerge from a pipeline at the oil fields in Basra, southeast of Baghdad, Iraq (File photo: Reuters)
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Iraq to Build 5 New Refineries With 790,000 bpd Capacity

Flames emerge from a pipeline at the oil fields in Basra, southeast of Baghdad, Iraq (File photo: Reuters)
Flames emerge from a pipeline at the oil fields in Basra, southeast of Baghdad, Iraq (File photo: Reuters)

The Iraqi Ministry of Oil has announced its intention to select a number of specialized international investment companies to build five new refineries around the country.

The ministry's official, Hamid al-Zobaie, said in a press statement there is a plan to build five refineries across the country through investment and various refining cards, pointing out that the ministry is currently seeking fitted companies to build these refineries.

Zobaie added that qualification and selection processes are to study technical and financial capabilities of the companies, especially that the construction of the refinery requires up to $3 billion. Applying companies must also commit to the deadlines and ensure completion of construction within the schedule.

The official listed the refineries that will be referred to investment: Kirkuk with a capacity of 70,000 barrels per day (bpd), Wasit capacity of 140,000 bpd, Nasiriyah capacity of 140,000 bpd, Basra card 140,000 bpd, and al-Faw capacity of 300,000 bpd.

The ministry is financing Karbala refinery which is about 78 percent completed, and once it is fully constructed, it will provide about 9 million liters per day of high-quality gasoline, in addition to various oil derivatives in accordance with international standards.

Rehabilitation and development operations of refineries are done by Iraqi staff, noted the official, who added that the cost of refinery rehabilitation is much lower than its construction.

The Ministry of Oil has prepared a plan to add fluid catalytic cracking (FCC) units used in petroleum refineries which are used to convert petroleum crude oils into more valuable gasoline.

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Italy Forges on with World's Largest Suspension Bridge

(FILES) A general aerial view shows the Sicilian coast towards Cape Torre Faro, over the Strait of Messina, taken from the outskirts of the town of Scilla, in Calabria region in southern Italy, on July 7, 2020. (Photo by Andreas SOLARO / AFP)
(FILES) A general aerial view shows the Sicilian coast towards Cape Torre Faro, over the Strait of Messina, taken from the outskirts of the town of Scilla, in Calabria region in southern Italy, on July 7, 2020. (Photo by Andreas SOLARO / AFP)
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Italy Forges on with World's Largest Suspension Bridge

(FILES) A general aerial view shows the Sicilian coast towards Cape Torre Faro, over the Strait of Messina, taken from the outskirts of the town of Scilla, in Calabria region in southern Italy, on July 7, 2020. (Photo by Andreas SOLARO / AFP)
(FILES) A general aerial view shows the Sicilian coast towards Cape Torre Faro, over the Strait of Messina, taken from the outskirts of the town of Scilla, in Calabria region in southern Italy, on July 7, 2020. (Photo by Andreas SOLARO / AFP)

Italy hopes to begin constructing the world's largest suspension bridge connecting Sicily to the Italian mainland this summer amid widespread skepticism that it will ever be built.

The 13.5-billion-euro ($15.3-billion) project would carry trains and six lanes of traffic, allowing cars to cross the Strait of Messina in 15 minutes, AFP reported.

Giorgia Meloni's hard-right government hopes to boost the economy of the impoverished region, although critics say there are better ways to do this -- and many believe that after decades of false starts, the bridge will never actually happen.

The choppy waters between the eastern tip of Sicily and the western edge of the region of Calabria are legendary as the place where monsters Scylla and Charybdis terrified sailors in Homer's epic poem "The Odyssey".

These days the challenges are more prosaic, from winds of more than 100 kilometers an hour (62 mph) to the real risk of earthquakes in a region that lies across two tectonic plates.

The government says the bridge will be at the cutting edge of engineering, with the section suspended between its two pillars stretching 3.3 kilometers, the longest in the world.

But critics point to a long history of public works announced, financed and never completed in Italy, whether due to corruption or political instability, resulting in enormous losses for taxpayers.

"The public does not trust this political class and these projects that become endless construction sites," said Luigi Storniolo, a member of protest group No Ponte (No Bridge).

Infrastructure Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini, one of the main champions of the project, insists it will be a game-changer for the local economy.

"The bridge will be a catalyst for development," he said on a recent visit to Reggio di Calabria, the city where the bridge will begin.

The government hopes to boost trade in Sicily, which currently suffers from an "insularity cost" of around 6.5 billion euros a year, according to regional authorities.

Meloni's ministers are expected to give their final approval to the project -- which Rome will fund -- later this month, and Salvini insists construction will begin this summer.

But work had already been announced for the summer of 2024, before being postponed -- a common theme in the history of the bridge, the idea of which dates back to the unification of Italy at the end of the 19th century.