UK-Dutch oil major Shell Group is expected to issue a series of new engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) tenders before the end of the year for a new 200,000 barrel-a-day (b/d) oil processing facility at the Majnoon field in the south of Iraq.

The new central processing facility (CPF) will be the second phase for Shell. It will include separation facilities for 200,000 b/d of crude oil, along with the treatment of 250 million cubic feet a day (cf/d) of natural gas, says a source close to the project.

Shell is also expected to tender three further deals. One will cover the construction and installation of a 160 kilometre, 42-inch crude oil export pipeline from the field to the Al-Fao storage facility. The second is for storage tanks and a tank farm. The final deal covers the facilities enabling and civil works, including roads and flyovers.

UK engineering firm Petrofac was awarded a $240m contract by Shell in April 2011 for the construction of a new early production system comprising two trains, each with capacity for 50,000 b/d of oil, along with upgrading of existing brownfield facilities.

Shell is the operator of the Majnoon field, along with Malaysia’s Petronas and state-owned Missan Oil Company. The consortium agreed to boost production from its 2009 level of less than 50,000 b/d to a plateau of 1.8 million b/d in Iraq’s second oil field licensing round in late 2009. The fields output is expected to hit 175,000 b/d in 2012.