Commercial bids have been submitted for a 1,350-kilometre stretch of the planned Iraq-Jordan pipeline according to a source close to the project.

“Bids were submitted two days ago,” the source told MEED on 22 March.

The bids have been submitted for a stretch of pipeline that extends from Pumping Station 3 (PS-3), in Basra Governorate, to the port of Aqaba in Jordan.

“There has been a lot of interest in the project,” the source said. “Forty-eight entities submitted technical bids. The number of bidders that submitted commercial bids is lower, but it shows that contractors are keen to take the project on.”

The source declined to reveal the exact number of contractors that have submitted commercial bids.

Another 420km stretch of pipeline, extending from Pumping Station-1 to Pumping Station-3, is being discussed by Iraqi officials and is likely to be tendered over coming months, according to the source.

The entire pipeline project has an estimated budget of about $12bn dollars.

Under current plans it will have a capacity of 1 million barrels a day (b/d) of oil and will be built using the build-own-operate-transfer (BOOT) model, according to the source.

In 2013 Iraq pre-qualified 12 companies and joint ventures in 2013 to build the export pipeline to Jordan, but it the project was put on hold due to security concerns.

The pipeline project has been revived with a new route that has been designed to avoid territory that is controlled by the jihadist group the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (Isis).

The project’s previous route would have passed through Iraq’s Hit district, which is located west of Baghdad and is still under the control of Isis.

It is expected the pipeline will now follow the original route up to the town of Najaf, which lies 150km south of Baghdad. After this point, it will stay close to the country’s southern border.

“The new route will skirt the border with Saudi Arabia before entering Jordanian territory,” the source said.

The project is being handled by State Company for Oil Projects (Scop), a subsidiary of the Oil Ministry, with Canada’s SNC Lavalin acting as its adviser and project manager.