Iraq has awarded a US$472mn contract for an oil export facility expansion and sub-sea pipeline to the Italian group Saipem, a subsidiary of oil group Eni.
Saipem will build a single point mooring buoy (SPM) with an export capacity of 900,000 bpd and construct a 50-kilometre pipeline to transport crude from storage depots in Iraq’s southern Faw peninsula to the new floating terminal, according to the sources and to documents obtained by Reuters.
Engineering, procurements and construction work should be finished within 2 years. The order is the second phase in a wider expansion project announced last year.
According to Reuters, tender documents show that three other companies submitted bids for the contract, including Leighton Offshore Private Ltd, National Petroleum Construction Co. (NPCC) and J. Ray McDermott, a part of U.S.-based engineering and construction company McDermott International Inc. .
The whole expansion project, for which Foster Wheeler AG is handling the project management consultancy services, involves building two marine pipelines and one onshore pipeline and installing four single point moorings for loading oil tankers at a total cost of about US$1.3 billion.
