Shell petrochemicals plant to be constructed in Iraq

BAGHDAD, January 28, 2015 – Iraq’s minister of industry Nasser Al Esawi confirmed on Wednesday that Shell had inked an agreement with the federal government for an $11-billion petrochemicals plant near the southern city of Basra. Called the Nibras complex, the plan was first approved by the cabinet on January 13.

The plant is scheduled to come online in 2020 or 2021 and has the potential to make Iraq one of the biggest petrochemicals producers in the Middle East, according to Al Esawi. He also added that the Nibras complex represents “one of the largest [foreign] investments [in Iraq] and the most important in the petrochemicals sector in the Middle East.”

The agreement comes less than two weeks after Shell’s decision to abandon plans to build a petrochemicals plant in Qatar, citing “high capital costs” that would have made the project “commercially unfeasible.”

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