As many as six leading international engineering players are preparing to chase a major front-end engineering and design contract for the development of Abu Dhabi National Oil Company’s (Adnoc’s) huge Hail and Ghasha offshore sour gas fields.

Several sources close to the development told Upstream that contenders responded this month to an expression of interest floated by the state-owned giant.

Those believed to have shown interest include Australia’s WorleyParsons, Technip subsidiary Genesis, the UK’s Amec Foster Wheeler, Fluor and KBR of the US and Montreal-based SNC Lavalin, sources said.

While