Seoul [South Korea], September 16 : Hyundai Engineering & Construction Co. (Hyundai E&C) secured a USD 3 billion contract to build a large-scale seawater treatment and desalination plant in Iraq, the biggest overseas order won by a single Korean construction company in 2025 to date.
The company said on Monday that it signed the deal on Sunday (local time) at the Iraqi Prime Minister's Office in Baghdad. Attendees at the signing ceremony included Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia' al-Sudani, Oil Minister Hayan Abdul Ghani Abdul Zahra, TotalEnergies SE Chief Executive Officer Patrick Pouyanne, and Ryu Seong-an, head of Hyundai E&C's plant business division. The contract is part of Iraq's integrated gas development program, which also covers oil, solar power, and seawater treatment projects.
Under the deal, Hyundai E&C will build a seawater treatment facility near Jubail Port, around 500 kilometers southeast of Baghdad, with a daily processing capacity of 5 million barrels of water. The treated water will be used at major oil fields in southern Iraq, including West Qurna and Rumaila, to support crude output expansion.
The project is jointly funded by France's TotalEnergies, Iraq's Basra Oil Co. under the Ministry of Oil, and Qatar's state-owned QatarEnergy. Construction is expected to take 49 months from groundbreaking.
Iraq, which holds the world's fifth-largest proven oil reserves, depends on crude exports for more than 90 percent of its national revenue. The seawater treatment plant is one of the country's flagship initiatives aimed at doubling crude production from the current 4.2 million barrels per day to 8 million barrels per day by 2030. Once completed, the project is expected to significantly raise oil output and bolster government finances.
Hyundai E&C first entered Iraq in 1978 with the Basra sewage project and has since built about 40 major facilities worth a combined USD 9 billion, including the Al-Mussaib thermal power plant, the Northern Railway, Baghdad Medical City, and the Karbala refinery. The new contract marks its largest project in Iraq since the USD 6.04 billion Karbala refinery, completed in 2023.
The company attributed the latest win to the trust it has earned by delivering key national projects in Iraq over several decades. Hyundai E&C said it will seek to build on that record by competing for upcoming contracts in refineries, power plants, housing, and other sectors.
It also plans to expand its footprint in the Middle East by pursuing mega-projects in oil, petrochemicals, and industrial facilities, while strengthening ties with global energy companies including TotalEnergies, ExxonMobil Corp., and Shell PLC.
With Hyundai's latest deal in Iraq, Korean builders are on track to hit a combined USD 50 billion in overseas orders in 2025, following several major wins such as the USD 18.7 billion Dukovany nuclear power plant project in the Czech Republic that was awarded to a Korean consortium.
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