Iraq invites contractors to prequalify for work around Basra

BASRA, Iraq - Iraq’s state-run South Oil Co. (SOC) is inviting contractors interested in providing services to enhance its southern oil export facilities, as part of the plan to boost its crude output, to begin the bid process.
Companies have until May 5 to prequalify to compete for the rehabilitation and expansion of the existing export facilities and pipelines in the southern oil hub city of Basra.
Iraq hopes to boost its output capacity from 2.5 million b/d now to 12 million b/d in six to seven years.
Iraq has plans to expand its oil exporting facilities to handle the expected rise in output following deals to develop its oilfields.
The crude oil export facility project - funded by a Japanese government loan - includes the installation of two new onshore and offshore pipelines plus one floating oil terminal.
“This is part of an extensive plan to raise the export capacity from Basra ports to more than four million b/d in four years, up from 1.8 million b/d now,” an official at SOC said.
Iraq aims to install four new floating oil terminals and three new undersea oil pipelines that will boost export capacity to eight million b/d from 1.9 million b/d now, the head of SOC said last November.
Iraqi oil exports reached 1.79 million b/d in March, including exports from its northern fields, which flow through a pipeline from Kirkuk in the north to the Turkish port of Ceyhan.
The bulk of Iraq’s oil reserves, the world’s third largest, are in the south, and are currently pumped through two offshore terminals.
The existing pipelines carry oil from southern oilfields to the Khor al-Amaya and al-Basra oil terminals, but equipment is old and decrepit after years of war and economic sanctions.