Narrative
Full Description
Project narrative
In 2016, China Development Bank (CDB) and the Export-Import Bank of China provided a loan to Satarem for the Maysan Oil Refinery Project. Further loan details are unknown. The loan proceeds were intended to support the construction of a $6 billion USD refinery in the Maysan Province on Iraq's southern border consisting of a 47,500 barrels per day (bpd) fluid catalytic cracking unit and a 45,000 bpd solvent deasphalting unit. The refinery was planned to have a total capacity of 150,000 bpd. Swiss industrial firm Satarem (which later operate under the name Missan International Refinery Company (MIRC)) was responsible for construction; the Government of Iraq announced that it had signed a contract with Satarem on October 10, 2013. China State Construction Engineering Corporation (CSCEC) was also involved with MIRC and project implementation. Once completed, the refinery was planned to be operated by the Iraqi-state owned Missan Oil Company (MOC) on behalf of owners Wahan, a Chinese company, (85%) and Satarem (15%). The project's cornerstone laying ceremony was held on February 25, 2016. According to the 2018-2022 National Development Plan from Iraq's Ministry of Planning, the refinery was expected to become operational in 2022. However, the project stalled. On January 4, 2018, Iraq's Ministry of Oil announced that it had required Missan International Refinery Company (MIRC) (Satarem) to sign an undertaking that it would begin work on the refinery within 30 days. The project entered into actual implementation on February 1, 2018. Powerchina International Engineering Company signed an Engineering, Procurement and Construction contract with Iraq's Missan International Refinery and Chemical Company to build Missan Refinery Project on January 18, 2022. The contract value was $880 million with a project duration of 54 months. Record ID#65637 captures the estimated financial commitment of China Development Bank, while Record ID#100777 captures the estimated financial commitment of China Eximbank.
Staff comments
1. This project is also known as the Missan Oil Refinery Project, the Maissan Oil Refinery Project, and the Maisan Oil Refinery Project. The name of the refinery in Arabic is مصفى ميسان. 2. Iraq's National Investment Commission ("Maysan Province") reports that this project cost $5.755 billion USD, but $6 billion USD is the more commonly, consistently reported figure for the approximate cost of this project. 3. It is unclear when CDB and China Eximbank provided the loan for this project (as these are banks, AidData has assumed the flow type was a loan). "UPDATE: Construction begins on new Missan refinery", which was published in late February 2016, includes a statement from Iraq's Deputy Oil Minister for Refineries asserting that CDB and China Eximbank would be funding the project, suggesting that the banks committed financing prior to that point. However, the exact time of signing is unknown, so AidData has coded 2016 as the commitment year and set the commitment date estimated field to True. 4. AidData has assumed Satarem was the recipient of this loan, as "UPDATE: Construction begins on new Missan refinery" explicitly states that the Government of Iraq and Iraqi banks were not contributing to this project; it would be highly unusual for the loan to go to the Government of Iraq if this was the case. 5. Lastly, there are grave concerns amongst members of the media about Satarem and Wahan. For one, Satarem was legally bankrupt, its assets liquidated and removed from the official Swiss registry of company at the time of cornerstone laying ceremony in February 2016. Satarem has since operated as/thorough Missan International Refinery Company (MIRC) it implement the project. For Wahan's part, there is a claim that Wahan is, in fact, fictional. The evidence for this comes from the fact that, despite owning 85% of the refinery, Wahan was never mentioned or represented at key signing ceremonies, presentations, and meetings (see pg.4 of "Satarem-Missan Refinery Scandalous Contract Gets Final Termination Notice"). AidData has been unable to confirm this claim.