Hyundai Heavy Industries has won a US$1.94 billion contract from Abu Dhabi Marine Operating Company (Adma-Opco) to build an offshore oil and gas platform in Abu Dhabi.
The South Korean company will complete engineering, procurement, construction, installation and commissioning work for the Nasr oilfield, 130 kilometres off the coast of Abu Dhabi, close to the limit of the UAE’s territorial waters.
Scheduled to complete in the second half of 2019, the facility will raise the daily production capacity of the offshore field to 65,000 barrels per day from the current 22,000 bpd.
Adma-Opco is seeking to add 300,000 bpd to total production from new fields including Umm Lulu and Nasr as part of its broader objective to ramp up output to 1 million bpd by the end of the decade.
Offshore oil is key to Abu Dhabi’s target to raise output capacity to 3.5 million bpd by 2017. Current capacity stands at 2.7 million bpd. Abu Dhabi Marine Operating Company contributes 600,000 bpd of that amount, according to the company last year.
Hyundai’s contract also includes laying 144km of underwater power and 55km of infield cables, as well as modifying an existing manifold tower and two wellhead towers in the Nasr oilfield.
It is not the first time Adma-Opco has partnered with Hyundai. In 2006, Hyundai Heavy Industries constructed three new gas injection facilities for the Umm Shaif project. In April, the company said it had awarded a US$1.89 billion to contract to Hyundai Engineering & Construction to develop the Satah Al Rasboot oilfield.
More recently Adma-Opco has been actively seeking to expand its other offshore fields. National Petroleum Construction Company of tyhe UAE last year won a Dh2.8bn contract to develop the Umm Lulu offshore oilfield. Together with the Satah Al Rasboot and the Nasr fields, it is expected to raise the company’s output sufficiently to meet its 2020 output target.
Adma-Opco is 60 per cent owned by Abu Dhabi National Oil Company, with shares also held by UK-based BP (14 per cent), France’s Total (13 per cent) and Japan’s Jodco (12 per cent).
tarnold@thenational.ae
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