MEED reported that JV partners Abu Dhabi National Oil Company and the US' ConocoPhillips have pre qualified at least 10 contractors for the final major construction package on their USD 10 billion plus Shah Gas development.
The international firms will be invited to bid on August 25th 2009 for the estimated USD 1 billion engineering, procurement and construction deal to build a gas gathering plant at the Shah Field in the south of the emirate.
Among the firms pre qualified to bid for the contract are GS Engineering & Construction, Hyundai Engineering & Construction and SK Engineering, all of South Korea, the local Dodsal and National Petroleum Construction Company, TR of Spain, Paris based Technip, Italy's Saipem, the UK's Petrofac and Techint of Argentina.
ADNOC has set a December 21st deadline for the pre qualified firms to submit technical bids for the plant, outlining their proposed engineering works. However, sources close to the deal tell that the award is unlikely to be made soon.
A business development manager at one international firm bidding for the deal said that "It is good that they are pushing ahead with it, but I think it will be a while before they get anything awarded because there are problems with the sulphur pipeline package and firms are asking for deadline extensions on the other deals."
The facility, the last of the major construction jobs to be tendered by the JV partners is key to ADNOC and Conoco's plans to produce 1 billion cubic feet per day of sour or sulphur rich, gas from the Shah Field. Under designs completed by the US' Fluor Corporation in May, the gathering system will take gas and fluids from the Shah Field to a nearby processing plant. Pipelines will then take gas, condensate and natural gas liquids to other processing and distribution facilities at Habshan, 65 miles southwest of Abu Dhabi city, which will be linked to a sulphur export terminal at the nearby Ruwais Port.
Adnoc issued invitations to bid on the main package for the plant, the pipelines and the Habshan facilities, in June. But although Adnoc has now tendered all the major work on the project, oil and gas contractors said that the company will not award any deals until the Q1 of 2010.
(Sourced from MEED)
