OPEC producer Iraq has awarded a project to a Chinese firm to build its largest crude oil depot for export with a capacity of around 3.2 million barrels, according to officials.

The China Petroleum Pipeline Engineering Company (CPP) will build the storage facility in Nasiriyah city in the Southern Dhi Qar Governorate, they said.

“It will be Iraq’s largest crude oil storage facility as it will be built on an area of around 2.5 million square metres,” project manager Ali Ibrahim said in a statement published on Monday by Aliqtisad News and other Iraqi publications.

Ibrahim said the facility would comprise seven large storage tankers, including four tankers for heavy crude and four for light crude.

He noted that the project aims to pump crude through a pipeline to Faw Port, which is under construction in South Iraq.

“Crude will then be exported through Arabian Gulf ports….there are also plans to transport crude from the storage tankers through pipelines to refineries and power plants in central and North Iraq,” Ibrahim said, adding that the project is expected to be completed in the second quarter of 2025.

ZAWYA by Nadim Kawach, June 9, 2023