(Yicai) Aug. 4 -- China Petroleum Engineering Corporation, the construction engineering arm of energy major China National Petroleum Corporation, has won a USD2.5 billion contract for a seawater pipeline project in Iraq.

Basra Oil has awarded the project to CPEC unit Pipeline Engineering, its Beijing-based parent company said on Aug. 1. Building the mainline from seawater treatment facilities to various connection stations, branch pipelines from those stations to oilfield distribution posts, and associated on-shore facilities should take 54 months, it said.

A contract has yet to be signed, so formal execution remains uncertain, CPEC said, noting that if formally contracted and successfully implemented, the project will positively impact the firm’s earnings over the next four to five years.

The company’s shares [SHA: 600339] closed 0.3 percent down at CNY3.39 (47 US cents) apiece in Shanghai today. The stock has fallen 4.8 percent since the end of last year.

CPEC has been shifting toward higher-end projects, partnering with international and national oil companies and global construction firms. In the past two months alone, its subsidiaries have inked two contracts with France's TotalEnergies worth USD1.6 billion and USD294 million, respectively.

CPEC's overseas revenue topped CNY23.6 billion (USD3.3 billion) in 2023 and CNY23.2 billion last year, accounting for 29 percent and 27 percent of its total in those years. In the first quarter of this year, net profit fell 20 percent to CNY194 million (USD26.9 million) from a year earlier, while revenue rose 16 percent to CNY17.1 billion.

The company provides comprehensive engineering services across the upstream, midstream, and downstream supply chain, including oil and gas field ground engineering, refining and chemical engineering, and oil and gas storage and transportation.

Editor: Martin Kadiev