Four leading offshore contractors are battling it out for a key offshore contract from state-owned Oil & Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC), involving the installation of more than 200 kilometres of subsea pipelines and modification of platforms off India's west coast.

Sources told Upstream that the quartet recently submitted technical and commercial offers to ONGC after a delay of more than two months in the tender process.

The subsea wells and additional pipeline project (Swapp), is thought to be worth more than $250 million and is likely to be tightly contested, industry source said.

Those believed to have submitted bids include domestic player Larsen & Toubro, Malaysia’s Sapura Energy, Indonesia’s Timas Suplindo and United Arab Emirates-based Valentine Maritime.

Some industry sources have tipped L&T and Sapura as potential early front runners for the pipelay job, and claimed they expect this duo to bid aggressively.

“L&T has recently been offering very competitive prices in offshore pipeline projects, and Sapura has a strong presence in India and could offer low prices too,” one source said.

The tender process for the offshore project was initiated in June, but bid submissions were delayed on a few occasions.

Initially, up to nine offshore contractors were thought to have shown interest in the Swapp project, but in the end only four bids were submitted.

In addition to the players that submitted technical and commercial offers, domestic players Afcons and Supreme Offshore, Italy’s Saipem, UAE-based National Petroleum Construction Company (NPCC) and Franco-US giant TechnipFMC were also interested, but did not offer their bids to ONGC.

The Swapp workscope comprises engineering, procurement, construction and installation work for 125.6 kilometres of subsea pipelines across 29 segments.

It also includes laying 11 umbilicals totalling more than 57 kilometres and topsides modifications at 31 offshore platforms, industry sources said.

L&T recently said it has been awarded a $200 million contract from ONGC for pipeline work on brownfield projects off the country’s west coast.

While L&T did not name the offshore project, industry sources told Upstream that the contract relates to ONGC’s fourth development phase of its pipeline replacement project (PRP-4).

The engineering, procurement, construction and installation contract awarded to L&T covers 86 kilometres of subsea pipelines, the demolition of several redundant risers and modification work at more than 30 offshore platforms.

In addition to the pipeline projects, ONGC is progressing with several shallow-water projects on the west coast, including a tender for the offshore infrastructure required for its $600 million-plus Ratna and R-series shallow-water development and for another project involving its Bassein asset.

Technical and commercial offers for both the Ratna and Bassein projects were recently submitted and the Indian giant is expected to award those two contracts by the end of this year, sources said.

Weekly

Four to fight it out for ONGC offshore contract