Iraq will be able to raise its crude oil export capacity by 900,000 barrels a day by the end of this year, bringing its total export capacity to around 3 million barrels a day, the country's deputy oil minister said Monday.
Iraq will be able to raise its crude oil export capacity by 900,000 barrels a day by the end of this year, bringing its total export capacity to around 3 million barrels a day, the country's deputy oil minister said Monday.

The Iraqi Oil Ministry has also extended a closing date for receiving bids for a fourth floating export terminal, known as a single-point mooring or SPM, from the end of December until April, Ahmed al-Shammaa told Dow Jones Newswires.

Iraq awarded last year a contract worth $733 million to Leighton Offshore Private Ltd. and Foster Wheeler Ltd. (FWLT) to build three SPMs in the southern port of Basra and to extend two sea export pipelines each of 60 kilometers in length.

"One of the three SPMs and a pipeline linking oil fields with the terminal will be completed by the end of this year," Shammaa said. The new terminal will add 900,000 barrels a day to the current 1.6 million barrels a day capacity of existing terminals in Basra , he said.

Shammaa said the remaining two SPMs and a second pipeline are expected to be completed by the end of next year, adding another 1.8 million barrels a day to the export capacity.

The fourth SPM will be awarded to one of several prequalified companies, he said.

"I am expecting the deal to be awarded in June this year," he said. This SPM will be funded by the Japanese International Cooperation Authority, which is part of the $5 billion Japan pledged to Iraq in 2003.

Each new SPM will be able to handle 900,000 barrels a day, or a total of 3.6 million barrels a day of oil exports, he said.

The capacities of southern export terminals need to be increased to cope with an expected production boom after Baghdad signed with international oil companies over the last year some 12 megadeals to develop some of its prized oil fields.

Iraq is currently exporting around 2 million barrels a day, and has a production capacity of around 2.7 million barrels a day but it lacks terminals and outlet to export all of its output.

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