Dutch dredging and maritime services provider Boskalis has begun tendering for Iraq’s planned 3mn b/d capacity “integrated artificial island” offshore Basra, which is intended to double Iraq’s southern export capacity to 6.5mn b/d (MEES, 20 September 2019). Boskalis Chairman Peter Berdowski indicated on a 4 March earnings call that the “substantial project” will involve “hundreds of hopper weeks”. He also expects work to begin H2 2021.
The four-berth island will include a 6mn barrel storage facility with each jetty equipped with loading facilities for a VLCC. Located four nautical miles south of Al Basrah Oil Terminal (ABOT) and to be connected via two new pipelines to Iraq’s main storage depot of Fao, the initial cost estimate of the project stood at $2.25bn in 2016. (CONTINUED - 279 WORDS)
