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By Saif Hameed
BAGHDAD, Jan 28 (Reuters) - Royal Dutch Shell signed a deal with Iraq on Wednesday worth $11 billion to builda petrochemicals plant in the southern oil hub of Basra,boosting the country's aim to become a major regional energyplayer and diversify its income.
Industry Minister Nasser al-Esawi told a news conference theNibras complex, which is expected to come online within five tosix years, would make his country the largest petrochemicalproducer in the Middle East.
Iraq, which relies on oil for more than 90 percent of itsrevenue, has been hit hard by the steep fall in global oilprices since June, with Brent crude now hovering around $50 abarrel.
Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said last week he fearedlower revenues from oil could hurt Iraq's military campaignagainst the Islamic State militants who swept across northernIraq last summer, prompting U.S.-led airstrikes.
"The Nibras complex will be one of the largest (foreign)investments (in Iraq) and the most important in thepetrochemical sector in the Middle East," Esawi said.
He said the factory would produce 1.8 million tonnes ofpetrochemical products per year.
A Shell spokesman told Reuters Iraq's cabinet had authorisedthe project on Jan 13. Company officials declined to confirm thesize or types of output expected from the facility.
"Shell has been working with the Iraqi ministries ofindustry and minerals and jointly with the ministries of oil andtransport to develop a joint investment model for a world-scalepetrochemical cracker and derivative complex in the south ofIraq," the spokesman said.
Shell is one of the main major oil companies operating insouth Iraq, operating the Majnoon oilfield and leading the BasraGas Company joint venture. It signed a memorandum ofunderstanding with the ministry for the Nibras project in 2012.
(Additional reporting by Rania El Gamal in Dubai; Writing byStephen Kalin; Editing by Greg Mahlich and William Hardy)
