US oil major, ExxonMobil is holding tender clarification meetings with international engineering firms bidding for design work at the planned $12bn seawater treatment in Iraq.

In May, ExxonMobil invited firms to bid for field surveys and front-end engineering and design (feed) and pre-feed work.

An award could be made before August, says a source close to the scheme.

“If it doesn’t happen in July, we will have to wait another month to September. Nothing will happen in Ramadan. But it will happen”, says the source.

ExxonMobil has split the work into several areas, including a 120-kilometre pipeline and the water treatment plant. This will include seawater inlets, pumping stations, treatment facilities. An environmental impact assessment package will cover the entire scheme.

Although the Common Seawater Supply Facility (CSSF) has experienced delays, one source bidding on the deal says it is very much alive (MEED 6:4:11).

The development of the facility is led by the ExxonMobil and is intended to process 2.5 million barrels a day (b/d) of treated seawater from the Gulf, with expansion up to 12 million b/d to be injected in fields awarded in Iraq’s first and second oil licensing rounds.