The UK’s Petrofac has emerged as the frontrunner to win the first of three major engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) deals with Russia’s Gazprom, the developer of the Badra oil field in Iraq.

According to sources close to the project, Petrofac submitted the lowest bid at approximately $350m for the construction of a central processing facility (CPF). Italy’s Saipem was the second lowest bidder, followed by Samsung Engineering of South Korea and France’s Technip.

Gazprom has also prequalified the same firms to bid for the second phase of CPFs, after documents were submitted in mid-October. Bids are due to be submitted by 15 January (MEED 4:11:11).

According to a source close to the scheme, Gazprom has relaunched the prequalification process for the pipeline deal, which involves the construction of natural gas, crude oil and water pipelines, as well as in-field pipelines. Tenders are yet to be released for an export pipeline from Badra to the Gharraf field in the south of the country.

Petrofac submitted the lowest bid at approximately $350m for the construction of a central processing facility at Badra

Sources close to the project

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. Gazprom drilled its first appraisal well at the field on 24 November and hopes to begin commercial production at 15,000 barrels a day (b/d) by August 2013. The group plans to eventually lift production to 170,000 b/d.