Iraq’s Oil Ministry is still in negotiations with South Korea’s Daewoo Engineering & Construction to agree a final price for the last of three degassing stations planned for the Zubair oil field, according to Thamir Ghadban, an advisor to the Iraqi prime minister, speaking at the MEED Iraq Energy Projects conference in Dubai on 26 February.

The Iraqi cabinet approved two contracts worth $1.7bn with South Korea’s Samsung Engineering and Hyundai Engineering & Construction on 25 February.

Samsung will be awarded the larger of the two contracts at $894.4m.

for the construction of the degassing Station in the north of the field, while Hyundai was awarded a $818.2m contract for the central degassing station. Construction is expected to take 30 and 28 months respectively.

The Zubair field is operated by Italy’s Eni. MEED reported in mid-January that the Oil Ministry and Eni were close to awarding three degassing station deals having been in talks with bidders since September. The proposals were originally submitted in February 2013 by six companies and once again in May 2013.