| 2008: Oil production resumes in Baiji refinery-Oil Ministry |
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January 8, 2008 Baiji oil refinery resumed with capacity exceeding (200) thousand barrels of petroleum products per day after extinguishing the fire that ignited due to a technical failure on Monday, an Oil Ministry official said. “Production resumed in the refinery production units by operating the units that were halted for precautionary reasons while the refinery was on fire”, Ahmed al-Shamaa, deputy oil minister told the independent news agency Voices of Iraq (VOI). He added “the fire did not affect the refinery’s production, one of the biggest refineries in Iraq.” Al-Shammaa noted “the technical and engineering teams, as well as fire-fighting brigades, quickly brought the fire in the liquefied gas unit under control and eliminated its effects.” “Production in the higher levels left high reserves in storage, and the refinery was not affected by the accidental fire, and resumed the delivery of oil products to reservoirs and stations,” the oil official pointed out. Earlier, an oil refinery source said an employee was killed and 15 others were wounded when a huge fire erupted in the liquefied gas unit at Baiji refinery. Elsewhere, oil ministry spokesman Assim Jihad said the Oil Ministry ordered the oil products distributing company to deliver an extra 100 liters of kerosene for each family in the winter share after distributing 200 liters last two months. He added that the planned distribution of the 100 liters, according to each individual family’s ration card, began in January. Source: Voices of Iraq |