Russia’s Lukoil has issued a new tender for the provision of pre-front-end engineering design (feed) services for an export pipeline from Tuba oil depot to the Al-Fao oil terminal in the south of Iraq.

The tender also calls for design work for capacity expansion at the Tuba tank farm. Prequalification documents are due to be submitted before 23 November when full tender documents will be made available.

According to a source close to the project, engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) tenders for the scheme could be launched as early as January 2012, although the Russian firm is likely to wait for the response to the design tender before moving ahead.

“If they get a slow response, Lukoil may ask EPC bidders to do some extra preliminary design work to catch up,” says the source.

Lukoil has already received bids for a 105-kilometre pipeline from the West Qurna Phase-2 oil field to the Tuba depot (MEED 4:11:11).

The company is working with Norway’s Statoil produce to 1.8 million barrels a day (b/d) by 2017. Drilling began in October and expects to produce 150,000 b/d by 2013 and in 400,000 b/d by 2014.

Crude oil produced for export in the south of Iraq is carried through a 48-inch pipeline to the southern tip of the Al-Fao peninsula, before passing undersea over 50km to the Basra oil terminal where it is loaded onto vessels. The Al-Fao terminal serves as oil storage and pumping station.