PARIS, March 11 (UPI) -- An integrated security system for a major oil field in southern Iraq is to be designed and deployed by Thales, the French company announced.
The West Qurna-2 oil field, located south of the city of Basra, is believed to hold 14 billion barrels of recoverable oil reserves and is to be developed by LUKOIL Mid-East Ltd, a subsidiary of the Russian oil company LUKOIL.
Under the contract from LUKOIL, Thales will design and deploy the Integrated Security System over the security perimeter of the oil field. It will include a command and control center to assure supervision and control of day-to-day security operations and comprehensive protection from operational incidents and threats.
The contract is the second from LUKOIL Mid-East the company has received. As part of an international consortium, it was contracted last year to supply spare parts and maintenance help at the existing and future security installations of LUKOIL´s West Qurna-2 oil field development project.
Thales said the two contracts carry a combined value of about $40 million.
"These two contracts are important milestones because they are Thales's first deals with LUKOIL, Russia's largest privately owned oil business group and a major international, vertically integrated oil and gas company," said Dominique Gaiardo, Thales Protection Systems' vice president. "In addition, these awards continue to confirm that Iraq is an important geographical market for Thales."
