(Yicai) June 6 -- China Petroleum Engineering’s shares rose after a subsidiary won a USD294 million contract to build a network of sour-gas transmission pipelines in southern Iraq, making it the second major infrastructure project awarded to the engineering firm by France’s TotalEnergies in less than a month.

The company’s share price [SHA:600339] closed 1.3 percent higher at CNY3.16 (44 US cents) today, though it is still down 11.3 percent since the end of last year. The broader Shanghai stock market ended little changed.

China Petroleum Pipeline Bureau Engineering will be responsible for the engineering, procurement, supply, construction and commissioning of the pipeline, its Beijing-based parent company announced yesterday, citing the contract award letter.

The unit will build pipelines connecting oilfields in Majnoon and West Gulna to a new natural gas processing plant at the Attawi oilfield, it said. The pipelines will be 114 kilometers and 83 km long, respectively, in addition to three other gas-export pipelines and related facilities. The project is expected to reach a temporary acceptance stage after three years.

Last month, another unit of China Petroleum Engineering won a USD1.6 billion contract to build the Attawi processing facility from Paris-based TotalEnergies, the project owner.

These recent wins are expected to strengthen China Petroleum Engineering’s foothold in the oil and gas sector in Iraq and the wider Middle East and should boost the firm’s earnings over the next three to four years, it said.

This is also the second major pipeline project that China Petroleum Pipeline, itself a unit of oil major China National Petroleum, has secured in the Middle East this year. In January, it won a USD532 million contract for a liquid natural gas pipeline with ADNOC Gas Operations and Marketing in the United Arab Emirates.

Editor: Kim Taylor