Largest oil refinery in Iraq shut after attack

The biggest oil refinery in Iraq has been shut down after two gunmen attacked the installation, killing two engineers and planting bombs in the refining units. The men stormed the Baiji refinery in Iraq's northern Salaheddin province in the early hours of Saturday morning. 

File photo: Reuters/Thaier al-Sudani

The entire refinery was closed because one of the bombs was detonated and damaged the Al-Shamal refining unit, which Abdul Qader al-Saab, the deputy chief of the refinery, says produces 25 per cent of the facility’s output.

Baiji has the capacity to refine of 290,000 barrels of crude, but was operating at 70 per cent capacity before the attack.

Iraq has two other major refineries, Basra in the south, and Dora in south Baghdad.

Together, they have the capacity to handle 550,000 barrels per day of crude, to produce 12 million litres of petrol, 15 million litres of diesel, nine million litres of heating oil and large volumes of fuel oil for power stations.