OREANDA-NEWS. China Petroleum Engineering & Construction Corporation (CPECC) has won a USD 547.95 million service contract to develop Iraq's Halfaya oilfield, Iraq's cabinet said.

 CPECC, which is affiliated to China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC), will handle engineering, procurement, construction and commissioning work at the oilfield, which is forecast to produce 535,000 barrels of oil per day (bpd) in 2017, Iraq's oil ministry has said.

 Iraq signed a contract in 2010 to develop Halfaya with CNPC, France's Total, and Malaysian state company Petronas for a fee of USD 1.40 per barrel. CNPC has a 37.5 percent interest in the consortium.

 State-owned China National Petroleum Corp said last year the first phase of the Halfaya field had started operating and had a production capacity of 100,000 barrels per day.

 Export bottlenecks and long-neglected energy infrastructure are the main hurdles to the OPEC member country keeping exports steady, forcing it to review its final production target of 12 million bpd.