France’s Technip and Abu Dhabi’s NPCC have been jointly awarded the ZADCO EPC contract for the first phase of full field development at the offshore Upper Zakum field, according to Reuters.
The contract, though to be worth between $820 million and $1 billion, covers the construction of 230 km of offshore pipelines and 125 km of cables to connect production facilities on Upper Zakum’s artificial islands to a central processing facility. Completion is slated in 2014.
The industry had widely expected NPCC, either alone or with offshore and sub-sea specialist Technip, to win the package.
Technip has a strong record of winning offshore work in Abu Dhabi, winning the Satah Full Field Development EPC contract worth $500 million from ZADCO in September last year. The company had already been awarded the FEED contract for the package, which is expected to raise oil production from Upper Zakum by 100,000 barrels per day.
At Satah, as is expected at Upper Zakum, NPCC carried out the construction and installation activities for offshore works.
Onshore works are expected to be subcontracted, triggering an uptick in work for engineers in Abu Dhabi and Dubai.
NPCC and Technip are also in the running for phase two of Upper Zakum’s field development, which is intended to raise production by a further 150,000 bpd under the UZ 750 plan. The award of the second phase is not expected until after the summer.
Habtoor Leighton, the joint venture between Australia’s Leighton Holdings and the Al Habtoor business empire, scooped the offshore utilities and accommodation package in late June, suggesting the UAE’s Supreme Petroleum Council contract approvals process is progressing more quickly than some in the industry anticipated.
Zadco is a subsidiary of Abu Dhabi National Oil Company which holds a 60 percent stake. U.S. company ExxonMobil and Japan Oil Development Co have 28 percent and 12 percent respectively.
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