15-03-09 Iraq has issued a tender for international oil companies to build a 50,000 bpd production facility on an untapped southern oilfield whose reserves are estimated at about 5 bn barrels.
A statement posted on state Maysan Oil Company's website invited bidders to build the facility and install dehydration and desalination units for processing the crude.

Halfaya is classed as a "super giant" oil field with about 5 bn barrels of oil reserves. It is among the fields that were offered to foreign oil firms in a second bidding round announced by Iraq last year.
Iraq's Oil Ministry and British firm Mesopotamia Petroleum Company signed a joint venture on February and the first drilling activity will be in the southern oil fields of Bazargan, Fakka and Halfaya. The prized Halfaya oilfield has an estimated production capacity of 250,000 bpd, according to Oil Ministry.

The government of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki is courting top foreign firms for long-term service contracts for major oil and gas development fields. It hopes that, as violence recedes in most parts of Iraq, foreign investors will set aside security concerns and flock to the country, which has the world's third biggest proven reserves.
Iraqi oil production now stands at 2.4 mm bpd, below levels before the United States-led invasion, but the government hopes to more than double that figure to generate funds for reconstruction after decades of war and sanctions.

The new Halfaya tender, which would build facilities to process the crude at the field before it is piped offsite, is part of Iraq's plan to accelerate steps to boost its production.
Iraq inaugurated an oil project with the Chinese National Petroleum Company for a field in the south-eastern province of Wasit, activating the country's first major oil deal with a foreign firm since the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003.