Russia’s Gazprom, the developer of the Badra oil field in the east of Iraq, has extended the tender closing date by three weeks to 6 February for an estimated $300m-plus deal to build a new oil processing facility.

International engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) firms were originally asked to submit bids on 15 January for a second set of central processing facilities (CPF), according to a source close to the project.

Four firms have been prequalified for the deal:

• Petrofac (UK)
• Saipem (Italy)
• Samsung Engineering (South Korea)
• Technip (France)

The same four firms also submitted bids for Gazprom’s first CPF package in early-December, with Petrofac submitting the lowest bid of about $350m, followed by Saipem, Samsung Engineering and finally Technip (MEED 2:12:11).

Gazprom has also tendered a civil works deal for the Badra CPFs, with bids due on 29 February.

EPC firms are currently awaiting Gazprom’s announcement on the prequalification of at least two more contractors for a pipeline contract covering the construction of natural gas, crude oil and water pipelines, as well as in-field pipelines. Tender documents were issued in November last year, but a closing date has not been set.

Gazprom is also preparing to release a tender before the end of January for an export pipeline, which will carry crude oil from Badra to the Gharraf field in the south of the country.

The Russian firm leads the development of the 3-billion-barrel oil field in the Wasit province of eastern Iraq, along with Turkey’s TPAO, Malaysia’s Petronas and South Korea’s Kogas. The first appraisal well was drilled at the field in November and the consortium hopes to start commercial production at 15,000 barrels a day (b/d) by August 2013. It aims to raise production to 170,000 b/d.