BP, the lead operator of Oman's huge tight gasfield at Khazzan, has awarded the UK engineering firm Petrofac a US$800 million contract to develop gas processing facilities for the second phase of the field's development.
The UK firm, which also won the contract to build central processing facility for the first phase of development, will add a third gas train to handle 500 million cubic feet of gas a day (cfd), which is set to bring total production from the field up to 1.5 billion cfd. Oman, the biggest regional oil producer that is not a member of Opec, needs more natural gas for power generation as well as for exports.
In September, BP brought a billion cfd gas online from the Khazzan field. It had announced plans earlier this year to tender work on the associated Ghazeer field, which will be developed in the second phase.
"The successful start of production from Khazzan Phase 1 was a major milestone for BP in 2017," said Bernard Looney, chief executive - upstream at BP. "We are now building on this, deepening our partnership with the sultanate of Oman, as we work towards development of the second phase and this award to Petrofac will continue the relationship that delivered phase 1."
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Around 125 wells are expected to be drilled during the lifetime of the Ghazeer project, which is estimated to hold 3.5 trillion feet of accessible gas, according to BP.
When Ghazeer comes online next year, output from both fields will increase Oman's gas production by a total of 40 per cent.
BP holds a 60 per cent interest in the field, while the rest is held by state-owned Oman Oil Company's exploration and production subsidiary.
On Wednesday, the UK firm's engineering and production services division also secured a two-year contract worth $160 million from Iraq's Basra Oil Company, previously known as South Oil Company to build export infrastructure offshore the country's Fao peninsula.