By John Lee.
International oil companies (IOCs) in southern Iraq are seeking to push ahead with their own water injection facilities to meet production targets, according to a report from Platts.
Malaysia's Petronas, operator of the Gharraf [Garraf] oil field, is the latest to ask the Ministry of Oil for permission to build a standalone facility, as the new multi-billion dollar Common Seawater Supply Facility (CSSF) project remains stuck in the conceptual design phase.
The $5 billion first phase of the CSSF, which will provide 4 million bpd of treated water for the management of reservoir pressure, is not expected before the end of 2018 at the earliest, assuming the two contracts for design work are signed immediately.
Platts reports that project management consultants CH2M Hill had been hoping to award the front-end engineering and design (FEED) in the second quarter of 2013 and start the project in the third quarter of 2017, but the company is still waiting for details from the oil ministry, and its subsidiaries South Oil Company (SOC) and State Company for Oil Projects (SCOP), specifying the amounts of water required for each field and the time schedules.
This has been held up by delays to final agreements with the oil companies on their revised plateau targets. For the largest fields -- West Qurna-1 and Rumaila -- new deals were only reached in September, while negotiations are still going on with Shell for the Majnoon oil field.
Complicating matters further is the fact that only two firms are in the running for each of the main FEED contracts -- the US' Parsons for the water treatment plant and Austria's ILF Consulting Engineers for the pipeline contract.
The total cost of the various water schemes is put at more than $10 billion (12 trillion Iraqi dinars).
(Source: Platts)
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