Basra: Oil Minister Hayan Abdul-Ghani Al-Sawad sponsored the signing of a contract to establish a pipeline network to distribute seawater to oil fields today, Monday. He emphasized the development of oil fields and gas investment, in implementation of the government program and in support of the national economy.

According to National Iraqi News Agency, the contract was signed between the Basra Oil Company and the Chinese CPP Company. The minister highlighted that this contract is a continuation of previous agreements signed by the French company Total aimed at developing the Basra Gas Development Project. This initiative includes exploiting gas from oil fields and aims to increase oil production in the Artawi field to 210,000 barrels per day.

The project involves establishing a seawater treatment plant with a capacity of 5 million barrels per day. This treated water will be used for water injection in various oil fields to support reservoir pressure and maintain crude oil production in key fields such as Rumaila, Zubair, West Qurna (1 and 2), and Majnoon, and will also be supplied to the Maysan and Dhi Qar fields.

The contract outlines the construction of a pipeline network to distribute the treated water across the fields, with a total length exceeding 950 kilometers. The network will be filtered from the main desalination plant and pumped through a main pipeline measuring 56 knots, with branch pipes measuring 48, 46, and 36 knots distributing the water to the oil fields.

The minister emphasized that upon completion, the project will reallocate approximately 5 million barrels of river and groundwater currently used for well injection to human and agricultural uses. The project has the potential to expand to 7-8 million barrels per day of seawater in the future.

Project Manager Hamid Majeed stated that the project will be executed by the Chinese company CPP, under the supervision of the Basra Oil Company, with consulting from ILF. The director of CPP expressed appreciation for the project award and committed to executing it efficiently and with high quality. The ILF representative affirmed their pride in being part of the project and their dedication to meeting high specifications and quality within the specified timeframe.