Basra’s petrochemicals compound back to work via artesian well water

BASRA / IraqiNews.com: The petrochemicals plants compound in Basra will be back to work soon via water from artesian wells drilled by the compound personnel to feed its units, the facility director said on Friday. “The compound will be working again in 10 days after a hiatus of three weeks due to high saline rate in the Shatt al-Arab water,” Hussein al-Shimari told Iraqi News. “This high saline rate needed filters, which are not available for the time being, but several contacts were conducted some companies to provide them,” he said. Shimari noted that the company has so far drilled five out of 40 wells planned to be dug within and around the compound. Shatt al-Arab is a river channel, about 193 km (120 mi) long, of southeast Iraq, formed by the confluence of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers and flowing southeast to the Persian Gulf. The Shatt al Arab forms part of the Iraq-Iran border, and navigation rights to the channel have long been disputed by the two countries. The oil-rich port city of Basra lies 590 km south of the Iraqi capital Baghdad. AmR (P) 1