Iraq's largest oil refinery in the northern town of Beiji was still shut down after a fire Jan. 7, an Iraqi oil official said Wednesday.
Iraq's largest oil refinery in the northern town of Beiji was still shut down after a fire Jan. 7, an Iraqi oil official said Wednesday.

The official said the refinery, which is used to process around 140,000 barrels a day, remained shut because of a power cut.

"It depends on resuming stable power to operate the refinery," the official said. He didn't know how long the refinery will remain closed.

Beiji refinery was ablaze last Jan. 7, and oil officials couldn't then identify causes of the fire. The refinery, 200 kilometers north of Baghdad, has seen frequent attacks by unknown gunners since the U.S.-led war on Iraq in March 2003.

Shuaiba refinery near Basra, Iraq's second largest, was also ablaze Tuesday and was shut down because of damage caused by the fire to some of its units. The third largest Iraqi refinery, Doura near Baghdad, also suffered a rocket attack last month.

It isn't known who are behind these attacks. Oil officials in Baghdad blamed the fire on Shuaiba on a U.S.-led coalition helicopter flying at low altitude above the facility - a claim denied by the U.S. military - while an official in Basra said the refinery sustained a rocket attack.

Iraq suffers from an acute shortage of oil products and it currently imports more than half of its needs.

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