Iraq’s South Oil Company (SOC) has signed a general engineering services agreement (GESA) with Japan’s Toyo Engineering Corporation for its upstream projects.

Signed in February, the agreement covers comprehensive technical services for upstream projects at all SOC oil fields and related facilities in the south of Iraq, according to a 25 April press release. Toyo did not state the value of the contract.

This is the first use of a GESA contract for Iraq’s state-owned oil companies. Toyo will typically provide a broad scope of services from business development and planning works to project management.

In January 2012, Toyo was in talks with Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) for the construction of an estimated $2bn fertiliser plant in Iraq’s southern port city of Basra. JICA will provide $2m towards a planned feasibility study for a 3,000 tonne-a-day (t/d) ammonia plant.