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Ratawi oil field to reach 210,000 barrels/day in 2028

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Treated seawater to be used to maintain pressure in oil

wells

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Associated gas will be processed to supply domestic

electricity

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Part of larger oil, gas and renewables deal signed in 2023

(Recasts Sept. 14 story with broader context of Iraqi deal,

TotalEnergies' press statement.)

By America Hernandez

CAIRO/PARIS, Sept 15 (Reuters) - French oil major

TotalEnergies has launched the second development phase at

Iraq's Ratawi oilfield and has begun building an accompanying

seawater treatment plant, it said on Monday, the final stages of

a $27 billion multi-energy project.

The project aims to boost Iraq's oil, gas and power

production, reduce imports from neighbouring Iran and lure back

foreign investors.

The prime minister of Iraq, Qatar's energy minister and the

CEO of TotalEnergies met on Sunday in Baghdad to award the final

contracts of the joint Gas Growth Integrated Project, led by

Total (45%), Iraq's state-owned Basra Oil Company (30%) and

QatarEnergy (25%).

Iraq's oil production has stagnated in recent years as

ExxonMobil, Shell and BP scaled back operations in the country

due to poor returns under fixed-fee technical service contracts

- something Baghdad hopes the Total deal will reverse, having

sweetened terms by implementing a new revenue-sharing model and

reducing the government's share in the project.

A first redevelopment of the Ratawi oil field, initiated by

Total in late 2023, will increase production to 120,000 barrels

per day by early next year.

The second phase, launched on Sunday, will nearly double

that by 2028 and eliminate routine flaring of gas, according to

Total's statement.

Turkey's ENKA construction company will build the oil and

gas processing facility with a daily production capacity of

210,000 barrels of oil and 163 million standard cubic feet of

gas, according to the Iraqi prime minister's office.

A 5 million barrel-per-day seawater treatment plant, to be

built by South Korea's Hyundai Engineering and Construction,

will enable drought-hit Iraq to use seawater in the

water-intensive oil production process instead of freshwater

from rivers and marshes.

Total also signed an agreement with China's Petroleum

Engineering & Construction Corp to build a gas processing plant

in southern Iraq with a total capacity of 600 million standard

cubic feet per day, the prime minister's office said.

The wider project includes a 1-gigawatt solar park and

additional plants to collect associated gas from oilfields and

burn it for electricity, helping to cut Iraq's dependence on

Iran, which supplies between a third and 40% of its neighbour's

gas and power needs.

In remarks on Sunday, Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani

welcomed the growth of foreign investment - something Iraq has

struggled to attract after an initial flurry of post

U.S.-invasion deals over a decade ago.

Iraq's oil production capacity has remained at around 5

million barrels per day in recent years. Yet the country had

ambitions to rival Saudi Arabia's output of 12 million barrels

per day - more than a tenth of global demand - when Baghdad

launched competitive bidding rounds for oilfield development in

2009, attracting international majors.