Malaysia’s Petronas is prequalifying engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) firms to build a gas treatment facility, along with a power plant and transmission lines at the Gharraf field in the south of Iraq.

Petronas, the developer of the field plans to issue tenders in October, according to a source close to the project.

The tenders are part of Petronas’ estimated $300m gas-to-power (GTP) scheme, which aims to minimise gas flaring at the field. The facility will be installed to pre-treat the associated gas for power production and is planned to be operation by September 2014.

Front-end engineering and design (feed) work is currently under way. The scope of work is separated into three areas.

Additional gas treatment units and gas turbines will be installed as crude oil and associated gas production increases. There is also the potential for extracting heavier elements from the associated gas through the fractionation process, breaking it down in to its basic components, including natural gas liquids. A gas pipeline will also be required to ensure the availability of fuel gas for the power plant.

The 1 billion-barrel Gharraf field, located in the Dhi-Qar governate in southern Iraq, was awarded to Petronas and Japan’s Japex as part of Iraq’s second oil field licensing round in December 2009.

The partners plan to develop the Gharraf field in two phases. Phase one targets the field’s first commercial production (FCP) at an average of 35,000 barrels a day (b/d). The second phase full-field development will progressively increase production to reach the field’s plateau production target of 230,000 b/d.

The FCP facilities are currently under construction by the US’ Weatherford International and consist of two crude production trains with a capacity of 50,000 b/d each. The crude is metered and exported via a new 18-inch, 11-kilometre heavy oil export pipeline to a tie-in point at the 24-inch Ahdab field pipeline.