The Murban Bab Oil Field, around 84 kms north west of Abu Dhabi, was where ADNOC struck first oil in the 1960s. The Murban Bab oil field is the biggest onshore oil field in Abu Dhabi and the oldest operating field in the UAE.
“This is where it all began,” ADNOC says on the company website. “The mighty field has been a prolific producer of crude ever since, but it’s time for a fresh upgrade.”
ADNOC announced a $489 million investment in November 2019 to expand and sustain the crude output of the mature field. In 2012, output reached 390,000 bpd, rising to 420,000 bpd in 2015. Following enhanced oil recovery (EOR) project such as CO2 injection, it reached 450,000 bpd in 2020. Work is now under way on increasing this to 485,000 bpd.
In 2017, ADNOC awarded an EPC contract to China Petroleum Engineering & Construction Corpo (CPECC), affiliated to China National Petroleum (CNPC) to re-energize the field.
The contract will boost Bab’s output capacity to 450,000 barrels of oil per day by 2020, from 420,000 bpd currently. The Chinese companies will also usher in new cluster drilling techniques to cost and the environmental footprint of the operations, and deploy digital oil field technologies to improve efficiencies, and maximize revenues from each barrel produced.
The Bab upgrade will also increase water and gas handling capabilities and deliver an additional degassing and processing train, to be built alongside the existing seven trains used to prepare crude oil for exports.
