International engineering and construction firms submitted bids in early April for a deal to build gas processing facilities at the 12.9 billion-barrel West Qurna phase-2 oil field in Iraq.

At least five firms handed in proposals for the associated gas processing plant and power station after technical bids were submitted on 30 January, according to a source close to the project.

These include Samsung Engineering of South Korea, Italy’s Saipem, the UK’s Petrofac, France’s Technip and Japan’s JGC.

Russia’s Lukoil, the operator of the field issued four tenders in September for the development of the field in southern Iraq offered on engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) basis. These cover oil export pipelines, a storage plant, a power distribution station and an associated gas processing plant, and an oil gathering system, processing facility and a water supply system.

Lukoil and Norway’s Statoil were awarded a 20-year service contract for West Qurna-2 field in Iraq’s second licensing round in December 2010 after agreeing to increase production to 1.8 million barrels a day (b/d) for payment of $1.15 a barrel (MEED 25:4:11).

The company started recruiting local staff from the Medina district, Basra province in April to work at the field, selecting 34 new employees. A further round of recruitment is expected in May. Lukoil intends to offer 500 jobs to Iraqis before the end of 2012.