Progress on water supply project for Basra oil fields

Iraq is making progress on a long-delayed, $4 billion-plus project to supply southern oil fields with water, without which the country cannot meet its future oil production targets.

The Common Seawater Supply Project (CSSP) is supposed to supply 12 million barrels per day (bpd) of water by 2020 to at least five oil fields in Basra and one in Missan province. Those fields will use that water to generate the pressure needed to produce nearly 8 million bpd of crude, according to technical service contracts being implemented by some of the world's largest oil companies.