OPEC oil producer Iraq has completed nearly two thirds of the Grand Faw Port project which will link the Arab country with Turkey and Europe, Iraq’s Transport Minister was reported on Friday as saying

Razzak Al-Saadawi said contractors are pushing ahead with the project to finish it on schedule in 2025, adding that it comprises 5 main berths.

“About 68 percent of the 5 berths in Faw has been completed after it was only 19 percent 3 years ago…we expect berth 1 to receive its first vessel soon as part of a trial operation,” the Minister said, quoted by Aliqtisad News and other Iraqi publications.

South Korea’s Daewoo Company is building the berths in the Southern Faw Port under a $2.7 billion contract it was awarded 4 years ago.

Faw is one of the world’s largest ports, with planned capacity of 99 million tonnes per year. It will be linked to Turkey with a 1,200-km rail and motorway as part of a $17-billion project dubbed “The Development Road.”
Source: Reuters (Writing by Nadim Kawach; Editing by Anoop Menon)