At least five leading offshore contractors are battling it out for a key engineering, procurement and construction contract from Abu Dhabi Marine Operating Company (Adma-Opco) for work on the Bu Haseer offshore full-field development, writes Nishant Ugal.

Industry sources told Upstream that technical bids were recently submitted by at least five leading EPC players, with commercial bids expected to be submitted within weeks.

Bu Haseer is one of the key offshore fields in the Al Yasat concession area managed by the Al Yasat Petroleum Operations Company, a joint venture between Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (Adnoc) and China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC).

Although the field is managed by Al Yasat, the tender process for the full-field development is being carried out by Adnoc subsidiary Adma-Opco.

Those thought to have submitted technical offers to Adma-Opco include domestic contractor National Petroleum Construction Company (NPCC), Indian engineering giant Larsen & Toubro (L&T), US major McDermott, UK-listed Petrofac and Italy’s Saipem.

One source suggested London-based TechnipFMC is also expected to be in the fray, but this could not be confirmed.

Several leading EPC contractors were invited by Adma-Opco earlier this year to participate in a pre-qualification process after which limited tenders were issued to shortlisted contenders, sources said.

China Petroleum Offshore Engineering (CPOE) was also believed to be among the interested players for the Bu Haseer development during the initial stage, but its participation could not be confirmed.

NPCC is said to be carrying out work on an early production scheme for the Bu Haseer field, with first oil targeted in the first quarter of 2018.

One source tipped NPCC as an early front-runner for the most recent Bu Haseer development project, considering its experience in executing the project’s early production phase.

Bu Haseer’s full-field development plan aims to double oil production from 8000 barrels per day, as envisaged in the EPS stage to 16,000 bpd over the next few years. The facilities for the Bu Haseer project include one new wellhead tower, a well fluid pipeline from the new tower to the first wellhead tower for the EPS stage, subsea composite cables, water injection pipelines, modification of the Bu Haseer north wellhead tower, onshore brownfield work at Das and Zirku islands and associated offshore brownfield work, industry sources said.

The Bu Hasser field is located 155 kilometres north-west of Abu Dhabi and between 15 and 20 kilometres from the Das and Zirku islands.

In addition to Bu Hasser, the offshore area operated by Al Yasat includes the Belbazem, Umm Al Dholou, Umm Al Salsal, and Yaser fields, sources said.

Al Yasat also operates onshore concessions covering some 7800 square kilometres, located southwest of Abu Dhabi.

The operator is believed to be presently exploring the onshore areas to assess the field’s full commercial potential and is expected to embark on a development phase at a later stage, industry sources added.

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Five battle for key EPC contract at Bu Haseer