South Korea’s Samsung Engineering has emerged as the frontrunner to win a second major contract in Iraq, after submitting the lowest bid to build a new central processing facility (CPF) at the Badra field in the southeast of the country.

The scope of the CPF-2 project includes gas treatment and water injection plants as well as three trains for crude oil processing.

According to sources close to the project, Samsung’s proposal was less than $900m, beating rival proposals from the UK’s Petrofac and Italy’s Saipem in a mid-February bid round. 

Petrofac’s price is understood to be between $900m-920m. Saipem had proposed a price of under $850m, but were technically rejected by Russia’s Gazprom, the developer of the field.

The three engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) firms, along with France’s Technip had all bid for the first phase of Badra oil processing facilities, which was eventually awarded to Petrofac on 24 February for $330m. The CPF comprises three crude oil processing trains, the first of which is expected to come on stream in the second half of 2013. The final train is scheduled for completion in the second half of 2015. 

If awarded, the deal would be Samsung’s second major contract in Iraq and would make the company the largest EPC firm in the country by contract value, according to MEED Projects.

On 22 March, Samsung signed a $998m EPC contract with the Oil Ministry and Lukoil, another Russian oil firm for early production facilities at the West Qurna phase 2 oil field in the south of Iraq.

Gazprom leads the development of the 3-billion-barrel Badra oil field in the Wasit province of eastern Iraq, along with Turkey’s TPAO, Malaysia’s Petronas and South Korea’s Kogas. First production from the field is expected in 2013. By 2017, production should reach a minimum of 170,000 barrels a day (b/d) from 17 operational wells and five injection wells.