Baghdad signed a deal in late January with a consortium of Chinese investors to develop a world-scale refining and petrochemical complex in the south of the country.
With recapturing of territory in the north and west last year, the area has increasingly been the focus of efforts to improve downstream provision. Two Chinese companies had been selected to develop a 300,000- bpd export refinery and petrochemicals complex on the Al-Fao peninsula in the far south of Basra province. Al-Fao is where a large portion of crude from the giant southern oilfields is currently sent for export
