Study completed on $13bn Iraq seawater project

26 May 2016

Key project for upstream oil sector expected to be tendered later this year

The front-end engineering and design (feed) studies have been completed on Iraq’s proposed $13bn Common Seawater Supply Project (CSSP), according to sources familiar with the scheme.

The CSSP is a key part of the government’s long-term strategy to increase crude production in the south of the Middle Eastern country.

 Iraq common seawater supply facility pipeline

Iraq common seawater supply facility pipeline

US-based Parsons carried out a feed study on the water intake and outfall structures, an approximately 500?metre shipping channel and offloading facility, the seawater treatment facility and a gas turbine power plant. The contract was announced in February 2015.

A separate feed study on the pipelines to transport the seawater to oil fields was carried out by Austria’s ILF Consulting Engineers, with the group announcing the contract from South Oil Company (SOC) in December 2014.

The CSSP will provide the operators with water to inject into the reservoirs to increase pressure and boost recovery, with targeted recovery rates of 50 per cent. It will also free up fresh water for use by the local population.

It will have the capacity to deliver 12.5 million barrels a day (b/d) of seawater through 426km of pipeline. It will include eight interconnecting stations and 10 delivery stations.

The CSSP has suffered several setbacks since it was first conceived. Originally led by US oil major ExxonMobil, the scheme is now being managed by US engineering consultancy CH2M, which was appointed in a $170m deal in late 2012. The official timeline for completion in 2017 now looks to be out of the question. With the project at the end of the feed stage, it is likely to be completed by 2019 at the earliest.

An oil ministry official told MEED in February that the main contracts on the CSSP would be tendered by the end of 2016.

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