US oil field services firm Weatherford International has been approved by the Iraq cabinet for an $843m engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) deal to build production facilities at the Zubair field in southern Iraq.

The award was announced by government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh, Reuters news agency reports.

The Zubair field deal was tendered in April 2011, and the consortium shortlisted three bidders:

• Unaoil (Monoco-based) and Rosseti Marino (Italy)
• Weatherford (US)
• Schlumberger (US)

Weatherford will build six trains of early production facilities (EPFs) with a capacity of 50,000 barrels a day (b/d) by 2014 at the field, which is being developed by a consortium led by Italy’s Eni.

In addition to its drilling and oil field services deals, this is the second major EPC contract for Weatherford in Iraq, having already won a $300m deal in 2011 for early production facilities at the Gharraf field.