BP To Brief Cos On Contracts To Upgrade Iraq Rumaila Oil Field

Tuesday, Oct 12, 2010


 
   By Hassan Hafidh 
   Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES

AMMAN (Dow Jones)--U.K. oil major BP PLC (BP.LN) is planning to hold a meeting for global and local contractors to brief them on contracts that it is planning to award to upgrade Iraq's supergiant Rumaila oil field, a senior Iraqi official said Tuesday.

BP on behalf of partners China National Petroleum Corp. and Iraq's State Oil Marketing Organization is planning to hold a "Share Fair" in Istanbul Nov. 22, the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told Dow Jones Newswires.

BP has set Oct. 20 as the deadline for companies to express interest to attend the fair. Interested companies should submit with their letters of interest a brief company profile and a summary of their statement of accounts for the last three years. BP will issue formal invitations Nov. 1, he added.

The company will explain to participants three types of contracts: engineering and project management services, or EPMS, engineering, procurement and construction, or EPC, and construction.

The official said invitations to the fair are expected to be restricted to EMPS, EPC and construction contractors with the ability to support largescale activities.

Following the fair, BP and its partners are expected to hold a prequalification and bidding process to select the best contractors to upgrade the Rumaila oil field in southern Iraq.

BP earlier this year said it would issue tenders to drill between 80 and 100 wells in Rumaila this year and next year.

It had already awarded three deals valued at at least $500 million to drill 49 wells as part of the program to upgrade the 17-billion barrel field.

BP and CNPC, both of which signed a 20-year service contract in November last year with Baghdad to develop Rumaila, are planning to increase production from the field to 2.85 million barrels a day from current 1.07 million barrels a day.

Iraq, which sits atop the world's third-largest oil reserves, signed over the last 10 months some 11 major oil deals with the aim of boosting its production to 12 million barrels a day in six to seven years' time, up from 2.4 million barrels a day.

-By Hassan Hafidh; Dow Jones Newswires; +962 799 831 831; hassan.hafidh@dowjones.com