Project Profile
Location: southern city of Basra, Basra Governorate, southern Iraq
Capacity: 1.8 mmbpd
Start-up year: 2013
Al Başrah Oil Terminal, commonly referred to as ABOT, is a strategically critical Iraqi offshore, deep sea crude oil marine loading terminal that lies approximately 50 km (31 mi) southeast of the Al-Faw Peninsula in the Persian Gulf. ABOT was originally named Mīnā\' al-Bakr Oil Terminal and was designed and commissioned into service by Brown and Root in 1974 with a design lifetime, with proper maintenance, of 20 years. In 2003, the current name ABOT was adopted. The facility was constructed with four berths capable of handling very large crude carrier type vessels (VLCC) and offloading 300, 000–400,000 barrels (48,000–64,000 m3) per day through each of the berths.
In 2004, the ABOT platform was refurbished and upgraded under contract W9126G-04-D-0002, an indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity (IDIQ), cost-plus award fee with an estimated not-to-exceed value of US$800 million. The contract was between the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) of Fort Worth, TX and Parsons Iraqi Joint Venture (PIJV), Houston, TX. ABOT\'s capacity was more than doubled to offload up to 3 million barrels (480,000 m3) of oil per day.
Along with its sister terminal, the Khawr al ‘Amīyah Oil Terminal (Khor al-Amaya Oil Terminal, KAAOT), the terminals provide the principal point of export for more than 80% of Iraq\'s gross domestic product as of 2009, and all of the oil from the southern Başrah refinery. Crude oil produced for export from the southern Iraqi oilfields is carried through three 48 in (1.2 m) diameter pipelines to the southern tip of the al-Faw Peninsula and then undersea to the ABOT platform. One 48 in (1.2 m) and two 32 in (0.81 m) pipelines supply the KAAOT platform.
The ABOT facilities can transfer up to 3 million barrels (480,000 m3) (Mbbl) of oil per day when all four of its supertanker berths operate at maximum capacity and has a maximum draft of 21 m (69 ft). Three single-point mooring systems (SPM) were added in 2012, each with a design rating of 800 thousand barrels (130,000 m3) of oil per day, and two more SPMs are planned to be operational by 2013 to increase total loading capacity to 6.4–6.6 mbbl (1,020,000–1,050,000 m3) of oil per day.
Operator:
South Oil Company: Operator with 100% interest
Contractors:
Emerson Process Managament: Crude oil metering systems
Foster Wheeler: PMC
Leighton Contractors: Build oil export terminal
Saipem: Build oil measuring and control platform