(Correction: This article has been amended from the original to remove an inaccurate estimate of the contract value from the headline and opening paragraph.)

A quintet of leading international contractors is set to chase a substantial onshore contract from Adnoc Sour Gas for carrying out the expansion of its Shah sour gas facility in Abu Dhabi.

At least three people familiar with the development told Upstream that Adnoc Sour Gas — a joint venture between Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (Adnoc) and Occidental Petroleum of the US — has recently shortlisted up to five contractors for the Shah Gas expansion project.

“Engineering, procurement and construction players have been shortlisted by the operator and they will be asked to submit a technical offer later this year,” one person confirmed.

The shortlisted players include UK’s Petrofac, Italy’s Saipem, Spain’s Tecnicas Reunidas and South Korean giants Hyundai E&C and Samsung E&C, a second person said.

In addition, India’s Larsen & Toubro (L&T) was also among those shortlisted by the operator, but is unlikely to participate, he added.

The project — named as Optimum Shah Gas Expansion — envisages further expanding the capacity of the Shah sour gas terminal to up to 1450 million cubic feet per day, project watchers said.

The Shah Gas processing plant in Abu Dhabi has an existing nameplate capacity of almost 1260 MMcfd and its expansion plans have been in the works for many years, but have been delayed on several occasions.

The gas plant receives and processes fluids from the nearby Shah Arab sour gas field.

Adnoc Sour Gas earlier this year awarded a key front-end engineering and design contract to UK’s Wood for carrying out engineering studies for the gas terminal expansion project.

The FEED contractor is expected to complete the engineering studies by October and Adnoc Sour Gas is hoping to engage EPC players at an early stage.

“The idea is to have the technical bids for EPC stage ready by the time FEED studies are completed,” one person said.

The operator aims to fast-track the tender process and reduce the time between FEED and EPC stages, he added.

The project’s workscope is likely to include surface facilities such as acid gas removal units, natural gas liquids recovery, and gas dehydration facilities, sulphur recovery and handling units and gas gathering facilities, project watchers said.

For the gas gathering facilities, construction of well pads and gas gathering trunklines, along with associated onshore infrastructure will be included.

In addition to the expansion project, Adnoc Sour Gas earlier this year fired the starting gun on a key carbon dioxide recovery project meant for its Shah sour gas field.

It initiated a pre-qualification exercise aimed at shortlisting potential bidders for work on the surface facilities required for the CO₂ recovery project, Upstream had reported.

The project will deliver up to 150 MMcfd of CO₂, and envisages to cut greenhouse gas emissions at the field.

The Shah gas plant is located in the Liwa area, about 200 kilometres south-west of Abu Dhabi.

The process includes extraction of highly sour gas from 32 wells in the Shah Arab sour gas field, gas gathering and transport to the Shah plant, gas processing and separation into different products.

The Shah expansion project is a crucial part of Adnoc’s integrated Gas Master Plan, which seeks to increase natural gas supplies to support several industries across the country.

Sour gas projects in the United Arab Emirates are technically challenging and capital-intensive.

Some of UAE’s sour gas fields have a high sulphur content that makes the gas highly corrosive and difficult to process.

The technical challenges of producing the nation’s sulphur-rich sour gas once posed a great impediment to the development of Abu Dhabi’s reserves.

However, recent technological advances have cleared the way for several complex sour gas projects in the emirate, including the giant Hail & Ghasha development that is presently being executed.

Adnoc has a 60% stake in Adnoc Sour Gas with the remaining 40% stake held by Occidental Petroleum.

Field Development

Correction: Five race for Shah sour gas contract in Abu Dhabi