Up to 10 leading international engineering, procurement and construction players are lining up for a key oil development project from Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (Adnoc) involving the further expansion of its Al Dabbiya onshore oilfield.

Project watchers told Upstream that technical offers for the second redevelopment phase of the Al Dabbiya oilfield were recently submitted to Adnoc, which has recently scaled back spending amid poor oil market conditions.

“Technical bids have been submitted and the onshore contract is likely to be awarded by end of this year,” one person said.

The Al Dabbiya development is a key component in the emirate's oil production expansion plans, as it aims to increase its production capacity to 5 million barrels per day by 2030.

Adnoc is progressing with its huge spending plan that involves $132 billion-worth of investments over the next four years, but some of those developments could get delayed by several months due to the coronavirus outbreak.

Sustained low oil and gas prices have prompted the Abu Dhabi state giant to reduce its capital expenditure on key projects and scale down facilities.

Abu Dhabi has been cutting its oil output in line with the record production cuts being carried out by the Opec+ group.

Some project observers say that sustained production cuts by Abu Dhabi could provide the Emirate with more flexibility to push back some of its key oil-based developments.

However, the ongoing Al Dabbiya development is a strategic one and is unlikely to be further delayed, one project observer said.

The second phase of the Al Dabbiya development is centred on the Al Dabbiya Transition Zone B and envisages the ramp-up of oil production by an additional 15,000 barrels per day by 2023.

Those said to be lining up for the onshore project include UK’s Petrofac, Greek player Archirodon, India’s Tata Projects, Oman's Galfar, United Arab Emirates-based contractors Target Engineering, National Petroleum Construction Company and Robtstone, Pakistan’s Descon, Petrojet of Egypt and Middle East-based ACC Lahoud, project watchers said.

However, it could not be confirmed by Upstream whether each of those players submitted technical offers to Adnoc.

In addition, China Petroleum Engineering & Construction Corporation and Italy’s Tecnimont were also believed to be eyeing the onshore development, but are unlikely to have bid, one person said.

Upstream reported earlier this year that Adnoc had set the tender ball rolling for the Al Dabbiya expansion.

The workscope for this development phase of Al Dabbiya includes adding a total of 19 wells — 11 oil producers and eight injectors — in two new clusters and three existing clusters.

The project also envisages debottlenecking the existing water injection system by adding a new injection facility.

Several other associated onshore facilities as well as pipelines are also understood to be a part of the contractual workscope, project watchers said.

Al Dabbiya is one of three main oilfields in the North East Bab (NEB) asset being developed by Adnoc.

The company is carrying out two phases of further development of the Al Dabbiya field which aim, in total, to add about 30,000 bpd of oil production capacity.

The two development phases at Al Dabbiya are likely to contribute 15,000 bpd each of incremental crude, raising — and sustaining — total production from the oilfield to more than 200,000 bpd.

Adnoc is presently carrying out the first expansion phase of Al Dabbiya and is thought to have awarded an EPC contract to Archirodon in 2018 that is estimated to be worth between $150 million and $200 million.

As a part of this first expansion phase, Adnoc aims to add a total of 15 wells in two greenfield clusters, named as CLS-CC and CLS-DD.

The scope for the first phase included work on the two new clusters, production manifolds and associated flowlines, gas and water injection systems, chemical injection skid and other associated surface facilities.

Al Dabbiya covers a series of low-lying islands in an environmentally sensitive coastal region of Abu Dhabi.

While the Al Dabbiya field lies in the coastal or shallow-water region, the Rumaitha and Shanayel fields — also a part of the NEB asset — are onshore fields.

The operator has already carried out three earlier development phases at the NEB asset.

In December 2014, Tecnimont was awarded a $2.25 billion contract to build surface facilities for oil production from Al Dabbiya, as part of the NEB 3 project.

Field Development

Bidders line up for key Adnoc oilfield development in Abu Dhabi