The South Refineries Company (a public company) was established in 1969. It is a government company affiliated with the Iraqi Ministry of Oil, headquartered in Basra - Shuaiba. Since its establishment, the company's activities have included refining crude oil to produce petroleum derivatives.

The South Refineries Company provides petroleum derivatives (liquid gas, gasoline, kerosene, gas oil, fuel oil, marine fuel oil, base oil, and jet fuel).

Production began at the South Refineries Company on 4/7/1974 through the first refining unit with a capacity of 70,000 (barrels/day).

In 1976, the construction of the second refining unit began with a production capacity of (700,000) (barrels/day) and 100% Iraqi cadres. Production began in 1979, and thus the refinery's production capacity became 140,000 (barrels/day).
In 1980, the refinery stopped production due to the Iran-Iraq war for eight years and was restarted in 1989 after a large-scale reconstruction campaign carried out by our national cadres that lasted for about two years. As a result of the war in 1990, the refinery was destroyed by coalition bombing and was restarted in 1991. In 1977, the construction of the fat refinery in Shuaiba began and the project was completed in 1982. Production began in 1996 with a production capacity of 100,000 tons/year. Plastic containers for filling fats, sizes (1) and (5) liters, were also manufactured, in addition to the manufacture of metal barrels. In 2011, the third refining unit was established with a production capacity of (70,000) (barrels/day) and production began in 2014, thus the production capacity of the Basra refinery became 210,000 (barrels/day). The third hydrogenation and gasoline improvement unit was also operated in 2015. At the end of 2023, a fourth refining unit was operated with a production capacity of (70,000) (barrels/day).