Wedoany.com Report-Sept. 16, Hyundai Engineering & Construction (Hyundai E&C) has secured a $3.16 billion contract to construct a large-scale seawater desalination facility in Iraq, the company announced Monday. The agreement was signed Sunday at the office of Iraq’s prime minister in Baghdad.

The Hyundai Engineering & Construction headquarters in Jongno District, central Seoul

The project, called the Water Injection Project (WIP), will be located near Khor Al Zubair port, about 500 kilometers southeast of Baghdad. Hyundai E&C will build facilities to process seawater into 5 million barrels of freshwater per day. This water will be used to support oil production in Basra, which hosts Iraq’s largest oil fields.

Iraq, where oil exports account for more than 90 percent of national revenue, is aiming to increase its daily oil output from 4.2 million barrels to 8 million barrels by 2030. Projects such as WIP are part of this expansion strategy. In the first half of 2025 alone, Iraq developed 113 oil wells. Hyundai E&C stated its participation in the project was made possible by decades of experience in Iraq, where it has executed about 40 major infrastructure projects since 1978, starting with sewage facilities in Basra.

The construction period for WIP is expected to be 49 months. The project is cofinanced by France’s TotalEnergies, Iraq’s state-owned Basra Oil Company, and QatarEnergy, Qatar’s national oil firm.

The contract comes amid a surge in overseas orders for Korean construction companies, which are on track to surpass the government’s 2025 overseas construction target of $50 billion. According to the International Contractors Association of Korea, overseas orders from January to August reached $37.24 billion, more than double the $17.96 billion secured during the same period last year.

In the first half of 2025 alone, Korean builders won $31 billion in contracts, exceeding the previous record of $25.5 billion set in 2015 before the market experienced a prolonged downturn. Much of this growth is attributed to rising global energy security concerns and electricity demand, which have boosted investments in power generation projects.

This year, Korean firms have secured contracts for projects such as a nuclear power plant in the Czech Republic, modernization of Romania’s Cernavodă nuclear plant, and a combined-cycle power project in Saudi Arabia. Power generation facility contracts rose sharply from $3.21 billion in 2023 to $22.48 billion in the first half of 2025.

“Domestic construction companies are pivoting quickly from struggling chemical and refinery plant businesses toward power generation, where they are building global competitiveness,” said the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport. The ministry added: “Since competing through low-cost bids is no longer feasible, the government is preparing support measures to help Korean firms win high-margin projects in overseas markets with greater added value.”

Hyundai E&C’s new Iraqi project reflects both the country’s need for expanded oil production infrastructure and Korean builders’ strategy of pursuing high-value international projects to strengthen their global presence.