Iraq: Leighton Offshore Wins $733 Million Crude Oil Export Facility Project

Leighton Offshore announced the signing of an EPC contract with Iraq’s South Oil Company to install three single point moorings (SPMs) and 120 kilometres of 48- inch pipelines in the Arabian Gulf, offshore Iraq.

The project will provide enhanced export facilities from the Fao Terminal near Al Basrah, and forms a major part of the South Oil Company’s strategic redevelopment program for Iraq.

Leighton Holdings Chief Operating Officer, David Savage said “This project is a fantastic opportunity for Leighton, and coming closely behind the recent SPM project win in Tanzania, provides strong recognition of Leighton’s strength and experience in SPM installations.”

“In recent years, Leighton has built an enviable track record on SPM’s and large diameter pipelines, having worked on some 13 SPM’s around the Asia region. Being awarded the Middle East’s largest and most prominent SPM contract is a great honour for us and great reflection of the strength of our capabilities,” Mr Savage said.

Leighton Offshore will use its vessels, Eclipse, Stealth and Mynx on the project.

Eclipse, Stealth and Mynx are ideally suited for working on SPM projects, and provided Leighton a key edge in securing this work. Leighton operates a very young fleet of state of the art vessels, all of which are fully compliant to latest Class and safety standards including International Special Purpose Shipping code.

Some of Leighton’s recent SPM projects include crude oil export SPM’s on India’s west coast for Bharat Petroleum and Bharat Oman Refineries, as well as the prestigious three SPM Terminal project for Reliance at Jamnagar. Leighton has also installed SPM’s on India’s east coast, in Sri Lanka, in Malaysia and in Brunei and in addition to the Tanzania SPM, is currently working on one of the worlds most challenging SPM’s for Cairn Energy which forms part of the worlds longest continuously heated oil pipeline.

One of Leighton’s key strengths is its ability to execute large projects in diverse locations, and the ability to tap into the full depth of resources and capabilities across the expanse of the Leighton Group.

“In the Middle East we have the benefit of tapping into Al Habtoor Leighton” said Mr Savage. “Al Habtoor Leighton has an agreement with Leighton Offshore to provide support with logistics and resource services for offshore projects in the MENA region and has played a positive role in securing this project.”

“This is the first major offshore project for Leighton in the Middle East,” Savage said, but with the opportunities in the Gulf and the MENA region, we are very confident it will be the start of a strong business line that will provide a steady revenue volume for both Leighton Offshore and Al Habtoor Leighton.”

Laurie Voyer, Managing Director of Al Habtoor Leighton, said “I am delighted that Leighton Offshore have been awarded this project. It provides us with an opportunity to support Leighton Offshore with the resources and capacity that we have available in Dubai at the present and produce a strong revenue stream for us from offshore projects going forward.”

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Source: Leightonoffshore, October  25, 2010;