Iraq’s cabinet has approved a delayed $1bn engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract with South Korea’s Samsung Engineering for early production facilities (EPF) at the West Qurna Phase-2 oil field in the south of Iraq.

Russia’s Lukoil was expected to award the West Qurna-2 deal in 2011, after bids were submitted in March by five bidders:

• Samsung Engineering $1bn
• Globalstroy Engineering (Russia) $1.3bn
• Saipem (Italy) $1.7bn
• Punj Lloyd (India) and Toyo Engineering (Japan) $1.8bn
• SNC Lavalin (Canada) $2bn

Samsung Engineering would not confirm if it had received official notification of the contract award (MEED 4:11:11).

The government is set to approve another contractor, the UK’s Petrofac, for a $300m contract for central processing facilities (CPFs) at the Badra oil field, say sources close to the scheme.

Petrofac’s proposal was given the green light on 24 January by the field’s development management committee (DMC), which consists of the field’s operator, Russia’s Gazprom and representatives from state-owned South Oil Company. It will now be sent before the cabinet in Baghdad for approval, which could take a further two weeks.

Petrofac emerged as the frontrunner for the Badra project after submitting a $330m bid in early December, beating rival proposals from Saipem, Samsung Engineering and France’s Technip. The same firms are expected to submit bids on 6 February for a second phase of CPFs.

If given the go ahead, the EPC deal will be the first at the Badra field and a second major win for Petrofac, which secured a $240m contract with the UK-Dutch Shell Group for EPF’s at the Majnoon oil field in March 2010. Work is expected to be completed by the end of 2012.