Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (Adnoc) has set the commercial bid deadline for multiple packages involving its much-delayed Hail & Ghasha offshore sour gas development that is worth billions of dollars.

At least three people with direct knowledge of tender process told Upstream that the state-owned giant has recently informed bidders that commercial bids for the four offshore and onshore packages will be submitted in December.

“They (Adnoc) are likely to release a technical bulletin on Hail & Ghasha within days and have asked bidders to submit commercial bids on 6 December,” one person said.

Earlier delays

Tenders for up to four onshore and offshore engineering packages comprising the Hail & Ghasha development were floated last year, but have been delayed by several months due to coronavirus pandemic and a demand destruction in the international gas market.

Upstream reported earlier this year that the commercial bid submission deadline would be pushed back at least until November, as the state-owned giant aims to further optimise costs for the development.

Adnoc and its Ghasha partners are likely to scale down the workscope for some of the key packages as they look to reduce costs, a second person said.

“Hail & Ghasha is still an expensive gas project and partners are keen to bring down the costs substantially,” he added.

The sour gas development is being touted as the emirate’s largest oil and gas project this year and is likely to add up to 1 billion cubic feet per day of gas from 2024, as part of Adnoc's master plan and 2030 long-term strategy.

Billions of dollars’ worth of engineering, procurement and construction packages involving the sour gas development are up for grabs, while the overall project is reported to be much higher.

Package 1 includes offshore drilling centres, subsea pipelines and compression platforms.

Those said to have submitted technical bids for Package 1 and that are expected to submit commercial offers later this year include a grouping of Italy’s Saipem and Abu Dhabi’s National Petroleum Construction Company (NPCC), and another consortium of McDermott International of the US with Spain’s Tecnicas Reunidas and UK’s Petrofac.

The workscope for Package 2, comprises facilities to be installed on the project's artificial islands and involves the Ghasha offshore processing plant and central living quarters facilities.

The bidders in the second package include a grouping of NPCC, Saipem and China Petroleum Engineering & Construction Corporation (CPECC), another consortium of Petrofac and South Korean giant Samsung, Hyundai E&C, and a grouping of Greek player Archirodon with China’s Sinopec.

Package 3 includes onshore utilities and tie-ins required for the sour gas development.

The bidders for the third package are said to include a consortium of Petrofac with Samsung, a grouping of Archirodon and Sinopec and Italy’s Tecnimont.

Package 4 comprises a major onshore gas plant at Manayif aimed at processing sour gas from the two fields.

The Manayif package is expected to be the largest on offer from Adnoc for the development.

The bidders for the fourth package include Tecnicas Reunidas with McDermott, another consortium of Tecnimont with India’s Larsen & Toubro, Saipem with CPECC and Petrofac on its own.

Field Development

Adnoc sets new deadline for huge sour gas development packages