Iraq awards contract to aid oil exports

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LONDON, Aug. 15 (UPI) -- Increasing the options for the export of crude oil from southern Iraq was key to awarding a $100 million contract for offshore services, an executive said.

Industrial services provider Petrofac, which has headquarters in London, announced it signed a $100 million contract to provide offshore operations and maintenance services to Iraq's South Oil Co.

"This is our first offshore operations contract in Iraq which broadens the scope of our growing operations within an important country for Petrofac," Marwan Chedid, the top operations manager for Petrofac, said in a statement.

The contract is for operations and maintenance services for a new oil export facility about 35 miles off the coast of southern Iraq.

The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, in its monthly report for August, reports that Iraqi crude oil output passed the 3 million barrel per day mark for the first time since 2003. A commodity strategist in London told Bloomberg News this week that "pipeline availability to deliver oil to the southern export ports is limited."

Nevertheless, South Oil Co. Director General Dyeyaa Jaafar Hyjam said increasing crude oil exports was "a key driver for this important project and we are confident that Petrofac can help us deliver our targets and become a trusted partner for SOC over the long term."