US donation to Southern Refineries Company

BAGHDAD / IraqiNews.com: The U.S. Consulate in Basra announced that U.S. Consul General Piper Campbell signed on behalf of  the U.S. Trade and Development Agency an agreement with the Southern Refineries Company to donate 502,000 dollars to carry out an executive study on the rehabilitation of Basra‘s refinery.  The statement issued by the U.S. Embassy, as received by IraqiNews.com, stated that the donation will help the general evaluation of the refinery and determine the engineering requirements and other prerequisites to develop it.  This rehabilitation will allow the country to realize greater economic benefit from its oil reserves and will support the Iraqi Ministry of Oil’s goal of reaching a production capacity of 12 million barrels per day by 2020.  It added that this agreement is within the Strategic Framework Agreement on the basis of joint interests. The refinery rehabilitation feasibility study will occur over the course of the next year and builds on the 20 other collaborative training and exchange programs to encourage economic development that the U.S. Trade and Development Agency has supported in Iraq since 2004.  RM (TI)/SR 436