United Arab Emirates-based National Petroleum Construction Company (NPCC) is hopeful that Abu Dhabi’s offshore fabrication market will remain resilient this year, leading to record revenues for the company.

NPCC chief executive Ahmed Al Dhaheri told Upstream that the company’s order book is strong and is likely to lead to growth in revenues this year.

“We are looking forward to record revenues this year — over 30% more than in 2018,” Al Dhaheri said.

NPCC operates in multiple markets in the Middle East and South Asia, which have witnessed a strong uptick in bidding activity led by increased spending by state-owned companies.

Al Dhaheri said most of the company’s key markets have shown robust activity.

“We have a strong footprint in the UAE and Saudi Arabia, in addition to markets such as India, Kuwait and Bahrain, where we see robust EPC activity,” he said.

NPCC’s Abu Dhabi facility is one of the largest fabrication yards targeting offshore work in the Middle East. It has capacity to fabricate more than 100,000 tonnes of structures simultaneously and build topsides up to 35,000 tonnes.

The Abu Dhabi-based player is currently bidding for work on several offshore projects in the emirate, including the giant Hail & Ghasha sour gas offshore development, which is valued at more than $10 billion.

Al Dhaheri said the company is bidding on Dalma and the Hail & Ghasha sour gas developments this year.

Separately, NPCC has also been involved in advising Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (Adnoc) on execution strategies and challenges as part of its front-end engineering and design effort for sour gas developments in the emirate.

NPCC has been chosen by Adnoc as one of the participants in a FEED competition involving its Umm Shaif Gas Cap and Belbazem development.

NPCC is also working on an EPC contract from Adnoc that comprises offshore infrastructure required for its Bu Haseer full-field development.

The Abu Dhabi yard recently completed fabrication of the Umm Lulu gas treatment platform (ULGTP) for Adnoc, which is a key part of the Umm Lulu field development.

The Umm Lulu expansion project is a crucial part of Adnoc’s strategy to expand its oil production capacity. The offshore field is expected to have an oil production capacity of more than 100,000 barrels per day in 2020, NPCC said.

NPCC is a joint venture between Senaat, an Abu Dhabi government holding company, and Consolidated Contractors International Company (CCIC), with Senaat holding 70% and CCIC the remaining 30%.

The UAE-based yard has been focusing on shallow-water offshore fabrication and pipeline installation projects for many years.

However, NPCC has recently started taking on an increasing number of onshore EPC projects, and is now also looking at venturing into deep-water pipeline installation projects.

The company also aims to support wind farm engineering, procurement and construction projects as a part of its expansion strategy.

While NPCC has predominantly focused on the Middle East and South Asia in the past, the company aims to extend its operations to new geographical regions.

“We are now looking to further expand our presence in Egypt, KSA (Saudi Arabia), East Asia and Africa, where there is strong opportunity to offer our expertise,” Al Dhaheri said.

NPCC is already a part of Aramco’s prestigious long-term agreement (LTA) arrangement with offshore contractors and has landed several key contracts from the Saudi state-owned giant since 2016.

“We have won nine awards (from Saudi Aramco) since and are bidding for many more. We were the only entity to win five new contracts last year — and the only LTA contractor to be awarded work in 2018,” Al Dhaheri said.

NPCC is now in the process of setting up a new offshore fabrication yard in Saudi Arabia as a part of Aramco’s In Kingdom Total Value Add (IKTVA) localisation programme.

“The yard in Saudi Arabia will be set in an area of 50 hectares in Ras Al Khair, and we aim to create over 2000 new job opportunities in the ever-growing market,” Al Dhaheri added.

In addition, India continues to be a strong market for NPCC, where it is currently executing an offshore EPC project for state-controlled Oil & Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) for the Ratna field.

The workscope for this $327 million scheme involves five wellhead platforms, subsea pipelines and other associated offshore infrastructure.

NPCC is also expected to participate in several ONGC offshore tenders that are likely to be offered to EPC players over the next few months.

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NPCC sees strong year ahead