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Page added on June 12, 2014
Al Qaeda Insurgents Surround Iraq’s Largest Refinery
While there had been sporadic reports over the past few days that Al Qaeda’s ISIS spinoff had surrounded or even taken control of Iraq’s largest refinery in Baiji, the government was quick to deny such rumors. As was reported earlier, the Baiji refinery remained under government control on Thursday after Sunni rebels’ offensive through northern Iraq, Iraqi Oil Minister Abdul Kareem Luaibi said. Luaibi said Iraq was not importing any additional fuel and that stored supplies of gasoline and diesel were good.
Militants from an al Qaeda splinter group, who seized Iraq’s second biggest city of Mosul this week, advanced into the oil refinery town of Baiji on Wednesday, setting the court house and police station on fire.
“Baiji refinery is totally secured by the special forces and operating normally now,” an official at the refinery said on Thursday.
It may be time to hit F5, because a few short hours later, and moments ago, Reuters reported that the Baiji refinery appears set to fall in Al Qaeda’s hands.
Insurgents surrounded Iraq’s largest refinery in the northern town of Baiji on Thursday, police and an engineer inside said.
Sunni militants first moved into Baiji late on Tuesday, closing in on the refinery, but later withdrew to the surrounding villages after reaching a deal with local tribal chiefs.
A witness who lives in a house near the refinery said the militants arrived in more than 50 vehicles.
Here is a quick snapshot of the refinery’s capacity:
North Refineries Co. of Iraq named Honeywell the main engineering, procurement, and construction contractor for an upgrade of automation systems at its 310,000-b/d hydroskimming and hydrocracking refinery in Baiji. Honeywell will fully automate the refinery, replacing a 30-year-old single-loop instrument control system. The contractor said the project, in addition to improving productivity, will offer “full scalability to support future technology upgrades.”
Built in 1982, the Baiji refinery has these processing capacities: catalytic reforming 46,000 b/d, catalytic hydrocracking 38,000 b/d, and catalytic hydrotreating 182,000 b/d. It has design capacity to produce 64 MMcfd of hydrogen, 5,000 b/d of lube oils, and 26,000 b/d of asphalt.
Photos from the ground:
A view of a damaged production unit after a bomb attack at Baiji oil refinery, some 200km north of Baghdad.
And an aerial view.
So with the Al Qaeda spin off, now armed with the latest US weapons and with nearly half a billion in petty cash courtesy of yesterday’s Mosul raid, the insurgents are about to have direct control over several hundred thousands b/d of energy output.
All they need is a central bank. We are confident Goldman can spare a partner to run it.
12 Comments on "Al Qaeda Insurgents Surround Iraq’s Largest Refinery"
keith on Thu, 12th Jun 2014 3:08 pm
What is the Iraqi government doing to piss the U.S. admin. off, so much so, that they turn their Al Qaeda forces on them? 🙂
MSN Fanboy on Thu, 12th Jun 2014 3:11 pm
So the American War on Terror actually leads to a greater terrorist state.
And they thought they could end war and violence with war and violence.
Who then is the terrorist and who is the freedom fighter….
Because it certainly isnt America… Right
Poordogabone on Thu, 12th Jun 2014 4:26 pm
Where is Saddam Hussein when we need him? Gee what a mess. All the war apologists are now saying much right now, I bet they will blame it on Obama.
Plantagenet on Thu, 12th Jun 2014 4:26 pm
Iraq is one of Obama’s greatest accomplishments
—joe Biden (2012)
Poordogabone on Thu, 12th Jun 2014 4:32 pm
What did I tell you!!! LOL
Northwest Resident on Thu, 12th Jun 2014 4:51 pm
Somehow I think the world financial and political elites have Iraq right where they want it — engulfed in inter-tribal warfare, unable to form an effective government that unites all of Iraq, chaos everywhere, and all that oil just sitting in the ground unable to be pumped out and sold on world markets, just waiting for some big dog to come along and claim it once all the pesky indigenous natives on the ground have been dispensed with.
Northwest Resident on Thu, 12th Jun 2014 4:57 pm
Plantagenet — Getting American soldiers out of Iraq where they were killing or being killed on a daily basis was quite an accomplishment, especially given how FUBAR the situation was when Obama took over from Bush. The many billion$ required to keep American troops in Iraq was also a good reason to pull them out. What? Are you disputing that getting American troops out of Iraq was one of Obama’s greatest accomplishments? Maybe you would prefer that we still have American troops in Iraq? What’s your point?
energy investor on Thu, 12th Jun 2014 6:09 pm
Assisting the Shiite Maliki regime against ISIS could possibly pit the USA against the KSA…this situation is a Sunni benefit after all.
redpill on Thu, 12th Jun 2014 7:57 pm
Love how the GOP is throwing yet another fit over Obama not doing anything about this.
It would be one thing if Maliki were asking for aid from us and as far as I’ve heard, he has not, but McCain, Boehner, etc. say “we should be doing something”.
Okay perpetual fit throwers, what is it we should be doing? Demand to be let back into the country to do their fighting for them?
Cheney mocked the idea that Iraq would cost us over 100 billion, how’d that work out?
Bob Owens on Fri, 13th Jun 2014 1:48 pm
We should have absolutely nothing more to do with Iraq. We don’t seem to understand that the terrorists, who hate America passionately, mainly end up fighting and killing each other. All we have to do is step aside and keep out of it. For our leaders to say that this civil war affects our national interests is beyond belief.
Northwest Resident on Fri, 13th Jun 2014 2:02 pm
Bob Owens — There is a LOT of oil in Iraq — the “easy to extract” kind, once you get all the “terrorists”, “insurgents” and pissed off Iraqis who hate Americans out of the way (those three may actually all be one in the same thing). Given that there is so much oil in Iraq — estimated to be second only to KSA — reality is that the USA has a lot more to do in Iraq, from the elite financial/industrial/political POV that is.
Davey on Fri, 13th Jun 2014 3:14 pm
NR, the reality is the global system has big stakes in Iraq. It is the last significant chance to maintain BAU a little longer. Minus Iraq oil it is over and it is over soon.