China’s CPECC wins Iraq gas upgrade project
20 March 2023
China Petroleum Engineering & Construction Corporation (CPECC), a subsidiary of China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC), has been awarded the contract to upgrade a gas compression system at Iraq’s Halfaya field.
The contract was signed on 4 March after nearly three years of negotiations, according to a statement issued by CPECC.
Commercial bid submission for the project took place in July 2020.
The contract uses the engineering, procurement, construction and commissioning model and is focused on improving the gas compression system at the facilities known as Central Processing Facility (CPF) 1 and CPF 2.
The scope of the project includes:
CPF 1 gas compression system upgrade
- Installation of two high-pressure compressors
- Installation of two low-pressure compressors
- Installation of two stabilised gas compressors
- Installation of a condensate separator
- Installation of two condensate pumps
- Installation of power supply, control and telecommunications system
- Installation of associated utilities
CPF 2 gas compression system upgrade
- Installation of a high-pressure compressor
- Installation of two low-pressure compressors
- Installation of two stabilised gas compressors
- Installation of a condensate separator
- Installation of two condensate pumps
- Installation of the power supply system
- Installation of associated facilities
Halfaya is located in Maysan Governorate in southeastern Iraq and is one of the seven giant oil fields in the country.
The project client is a partnership led by PetroChina, a subsidiary of CNPC. It also includes France’s Total, Iraq’s state-owned South Oil Company and Malaysia’s Petronas.
The gas upgrade project will help to ensure a supply of natural gas and condensate to the nearby gas processing plant so that it can be put into operation.
This is expected to increase the volume of natural gas that is collected and processed.
As time passes, it is expected that the ratio of gas produced at the field will increase compared to the volume of oil produced.
This is expected to require the construction of a new set of high-pressure and low-pressure flares in CPF 1.
The design capacities of the high- and low-pressure flares are 185 million cubic feet a day (cf/d) and 14 million cf/d, respectively
The project supervisor is the UK-based engineering company Petrofac, and the contract period is 540 days.
Projects to develop the Halfaya gas field have seen significant delays in recent years.
In February 2022, Iraq’s Oil Ministry said it expects that the $1bn gas processing project, which is under execution at the oil field site, will start trial operations in mid-2023. Previously it was expected to be completed before the start of 2023.
Halfaya is Maysan province’s largest field, with estimated reserves of 4.1 billion barrels.
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