Shenzen-listed China Oil HBP Group has landed a $312.5 million contract to carry out construction work on Poly-GCL’s Calub-Hilala gas project in Ethiopia, writes Iain Esau.

Once the terms of the engineering, procurement, construction and commissioning contract have been finalised, it will comprise three packages and is expected to run for two years.

According to HBP, packages one and two will cover surface facilities on the Calub and Hilala fields, with these workscopes valued at $149.1 million and $102 million, respectively.

The third package is understood to involve intra-field pipelines and flowlines and is valued at $61 million.

Poly GCL said the overall work includes the construction of two gas gathering plants, an oil gathering plant, a gas processing plant, 48 wellhead structures plus oil and gas flowlines.

The two fields hold about 4.7 trillion cubic feet of gas resources — plus condensate — which will be transported via an 830-kilometre pipeline to Djibouti to be exported to China as liquefied natural gas.

The scheme calls for building an offshore steel structure in Djibouti using Sembcorp Marine’s GraviFloat FLNG concept.

First gas from the two Ogaden basin fields is now due to flow in late 2020 or 2021, with pipeline construction due to start this month.

This major Ethiopian order builds on work HBP completed this year covering a pilot oil production test on Hilala that was put into operation in late June.

Weekly

HBP lands Calub-Hilala gas project building work in Ethiopia