Shafaq News/ Iraq’s Oil and Gas Committee has formally questioned Oil Minister Hayan Abdul Ghani over the decision to award the operation and maintenance contract for the Karbala oil refinery to a small local company instead of utilizing experienced state-owned firms.

In an official letter, Committee Member Ali Shaddad Fares criticized a recent Cabinet decision on a $180 million annual contract for Iraq’s largest investment project, questioning, “Why was Midland Oil Company, a state-owned enterprise with over six decades of experience, unjustifiably overlooked in favor of a small domestic company?”

He further condemned the lack of competitive bidding, asserting that “directly awarding the contract violates standard industry practices.” He argued that if the ministry and its affiliated companies were unable to manage the project, they should have “engaged leading international engineering service firms” rather than resorting to a “non-competitive selection process.”

The lawmaker also questioned whether the ministry had “conducted a proper evaluation” before awarding the contract and raised concerns over why it “maintains a large administrative structure if it cannot oversee critical projects and instead outsources responsibilities to smaller firms.”

Notably, Iraq inaugurated the Karbala Refinery with a production capacity of 150,000 barrels per day in April 2023. However, due to intensive maintenance, it has been out of service since September 25, 2024. Two months later, the PM instructed that operations resume at the start of 2025.