Kirkuk gasoline unit targets $300 million in annual gains

Summary

• A Kirkuk naphtha and gasoline upgrading complex is running on Honeywell UOP-licensed technology inside North Refineries.
• Investor al-Barham estimates the project can cut gasoline imports by roughly 10,000 barrels per day.
• The company has asked the oil minister to switch the contract from BOOT to BOO ownership.

The latest

A privately built naphtha hydrotreating and gasoline upgrading complex in Kirkuk is processing up to 14,400 barrels per day and, by its investor's estimate, could deliver between $250 million and $300 million in annual economic benefit. Experts told the Iraqi News Agency the plant uses technology licensed from America's Honeywell UOP and has been in operation since September 8, 2025.

Details

• The configuration: Experts told the Iraqi News Agency the complex comprises three units: naphtha hydrotreating at 14,400 barrels per day, an isomerization unit at 6,000 barrels per day, and a gasoline upgrading unit at 8,000 barrels per day producing 92-octane fuel.
• Design capacity: Annual naphtha processing capacity is put at roughly 4.75 million barrels, according to the same account. The plant was built and is operated by Iraq's al-Barham company inside the state-owned North Refineries Company, placing private operation within a public refining asset.
• The import math: The investor estimates the project can displace close to 10,000 barrels per day of imported gasoline. Iraq buys gasoline abroad in hard currency, so volumes taken off the import bill translate directly into foreign-exchange savings for the state.
• Jobs and returns: Al-Barham's own projections put the annual economic benefit at $250 million to $300 million and direct employment at about 350 positions. No independent valuation of those figures was attached to the company's submission.
• The contract request: An official al-Barham document numbered 1160, dated October 15, 2026 and addressed to the oil minister, requests reverting to a BOO investment model instead of the BOOT formula set out in investment contract No. 2 of May 31, 2015.
• What changes: Under BOOT, build-own-operate-transfer, the asset eventually reverts to the state; under BOO, build-own-operate, the investor retains ownership indefinitely. The shift would rewrite the terminal condition of an eleven-year-old contract.
• The financial strain: The company cited accumulated unpaid processing fees and difficulties financing letters of credit, according to the document, while stressing that operations have continued without interruption since startup. It did not specify the size of the arrears.
• Licensing weight: Honeywell UOP licensing is what allows the unit to reach 92-octane output through isomerization and reforming, the quality grade Iraq currently covers largely through imports rather than domestic refining.
• Pending decision: The request sits with the oil ministry. No response, timetable or decision on the BOO conversion has been announced, and the ministry has not publicly commented on the arrears the company described.

Background

Iraq's refining sector has long produced surpluses of intermediate streams such as naphtha while importing finished gasoline. Projects that convert those intermediates into high-value products are presented as a way to close that gap using crude the country already refines domestically.

Between the lines

The ownership request and the arrears appear in the same document, which links them: a company reporting unpaid processing fees and strained letters of credit is seeking permanent ownership of the asset it built. Approval would set a reference point for private investment in Iraqi refining, since the 2015 contract's transfer clause is precisely what the request asks to remove.

What's next

Watch for the oil ministry's answer to document 1160 and whether it accepts the BOO conversion, plus any settlement of the processing-fee arrears or disclosed output figures from the Kirkuk units.

Source: Iraqi News Agency (INA)