Qatargas has awarded a key contract to McDermott International of the US for front-end engineering and design studies for the offshore facilities meant for the second phase of the state-owned company's giant North Field Expansion project.

McDermott on Wednesday confirmed the FEED award that involves work on the Qatari giant’s North Field South (NFS) project.

“The contract scope includes the replication of five offshore wellhead platforms. The FEED contract will be executed from McDermott's Doha office and work will begin immediately,” the company said in a statement.

Upstream in September last year reported that McDermott was well positioned for the prestigious FEED contract.

The NFS development involves the second expansion phase of Qatar’s ambitious North Field Expansion project that is worth billions of dollars.

State-owned Qatar Petroleum is carrying out the tender process for various North Field Expansion projects through its Qatargas subsidiary.

McDermott has been involved with the FEED work on the project’s first expansion phase (known as North Field East).

The US contractor in 2019 confirmed the award of a FEED contract from QP for the first phase of Qatar’s North Field Expansion project.

The FEED scope for the first phase included the design of four offshore trunklines with intra-field pipelines, eight wellhead platforms and power and fibre optic subsea cable rings, McDermott had said.

McDermott is also executing a prized engineering, procurement and construction contract for the project’s first expansion phase that involves work on up to eight offshore platform jackets.

The NFS project involves the second expansion phase of the North Field, aimed to further boost Qatar’s liquefied natural gas production capacity to 126 million tonnes per annum by 2027.

Qatargas is presently carrying out the tender process for the first expansion phase of its liquefaction capacity known as the North Field East project that envisages increasing its LNG capacity from 77 million to 110 million tpa by 2025.

The first package is likely to include at least eight new unmanned wellhead platform topsides, while the second one is likely to comprise more than 560 kilometres of subsea pipelines and 300 kilometres of subsea cables, project watchers say.

The first expansion phase of the project, estimated to cost about $35 billion, is likely to be approved during the first half of 2021, according to Norwegian consultants Rystad Energy.

Field Development

McDermott lands key North Field offshore engineering deal from Qatargas