Malaysia-based DPS Leighton Engineering has won a $10m deal to carry out detailed engineering for two offshore platforms as part of Iraq’s oil export facility expansion project.

The deal is the first for DPS Leighton Engineering, a subsidiary of Australia’s Leighton Offshore.

The company will design two offshore platforms for the $518m Japanese Sealines project for Iraq’s South Oil Company from its office in Kuala Lumpur. The Leighton engineering team will also assist with the procurement and follow on engineering.

The project involves the design, construction and installation of two offshore platforms, a 75-kilometre, 48-inch pipeline and a 900,000 barrel a day (b/d) single-point mooring (SPM) system near Basra in the south of Iraq.

Leighton is already building three other SPMs, the first of which is due to ship its first crude oil in the new year, and should ease the export bottleneck. The two remaining SPMs are scheduled for completion by March 2012 (MEED 5:10:11).

Italy’s Saipem also signed a $470m deal in July to build an oil metering platform as part of the expansion scheme. Iraq plans to lift capacity to 4.5 million b/d from the current 1.8 million b/d.