(Yicai) May 15 -- China Petroleum Engineering Corporation, an engineering unit of oil and gas giant China National Petroleum Corporation, has secured a USD1.6 billion contract to build a natural gas processing facility in Iraq, making it the firm’s second major Middle East project win this year.

The facility, which will produce 320 million standard cubic feet of gas a day, will serve the Ratawi oil field, the Beijing-based firm said yesterday. CPEC unit China Petroleum Engineering and Construction Corporation will provide the engineering, procurement, supply, construction, and commissioning services. Completion of the project, owned by TotalEnergies, will take 39 months.

CPECC has extensive experience in surface engineering for oil and gas fields and has already executed projects in Iraq, its parent company noted.

The deal will help CPEC expand its onshore oil and gas field surface engineering business in Iraq and the wider Middle East and positively impact the company’s earnings over the next four to five years, it added.

This is the second engineering deal CPEC has won in the Middle East since the beginning of the year. Another subsidiary, China Petroleum Pipeline Engineering, secured a USD532 million contract in January to build a liquefied natural gas pipeline for Adnoc Gas in the United Arab Emirates.

CPEC’s shares [SHA: 600339] finished 0.6 percent lower at CNY3.16 (44 US cents) today. The broader Shanghai market gave up 0.7 percent.

Editor: Futura Costaglione