Technip to complete FEED work for onshore NEB 3
The national Abu Dhabi Company for Onshore Operations (ADCO) is making significant progress in the North East Bab field with the contracts to be awarded soon for the development of the third phase called NEB 3.
ADCO is the joint venture between Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) and international partners, BP, ExxonMobil, Shell, Total and Partex to develop onshore fields in the Emirate.
In the ADCO joint venture, ADNOC and its partners share the working interests as following:
- ADNOC 60% is the operator
- BP 9.5%
- ExxonMobil 9.5%
- Shell 9.5%
- Total 9.5%
- Partex 2%
The North East Bab (NEB) field is located 31 kilometers south west of Abu Dhabi City in the United Arab Emirates and covers 1,400 square kilometers.
As ADCO‘s largest asset, NEB is comprising four fields, Al-Dhabbiya, Rumaitha and Shanayel already in production and Jumaylah still untapped.
NEB is lying across Abu Dhabi coast line so that Rumaitha and Shamayel are onshore while Al-Dhabbiya is located 30 kilometers north mostly offshore in shallow water.
Because of its coastal position, NEB is environmentally sensitive with mangroves, coral reef, salt marshes and low level islands hosting unique and protected wildlife species.
In addition this area counts among the rare archaeological sites of the Emirate.
For these reasons Abu Dhabi is paying the greatest attention that any oil and gas field development in NEB is designed and executed in entire respect with these environmental constraints giving the advantage to engineering companies familiar with the place and able to provide solutions to reduce the environmental foot print of the industrial activities during the projects phases and later when running into operations.
The third phase of North East Bad (NEB 3) development belongs to ADCO strategic plan to increase its production of crude oil from the current 1.4 million barrels per day (b/d) to 1.8 million b/d in 2018.
With Zakum Development Company (ZADCO) due to reach 1.7 million b/d by then, Abu Dhabi is targeting 3.5 million b/d in 2018.
This target is part of the quotas given by the OPEC organization to each producing country in order to ensure to continue to represent 40% of the global production by 2018.
This stake of 40% is the percentage that OPEC is continuously targeting to maintain its influence on the crude oil global market.
In this perspective ADCO is planning to spend $1 billion capital expenditure in the NEB 3 project to add 110,000 b/d of crude oil production.
ADCO awarded PMC contract to Mott MacDonald
This North East Bab third phase project includes two packages:
- Onshore, the development of the Rumaitha and Shamayel fields
- Offshore, the development of the Al-Dabbiya
In the previous phases of NEB development Technip in joint venture with the local National Petroleum Construction Company (NPCC) performed the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contracts while CH2M HILL was providing project management consultancy.
Currently Technip is working on the front end engineering and design (FEED) of the onshore part of the NEB 3 project.
ADCO is expecting Technip to complete this FEED by the end of April in order to organize the call for tender of the EPC contract for this onshore part on the second half of 2013.
Because of its complexity, the offshore Al-Dabbiya part of the NEB 3 project is phased up in a different schedule.
ADCO is currently evaluating the offers for the FEED work of the offshore package of NEB 3 in order to make a decision in April 2013 and to award the EPC contract by 2014.
In 2012, ADCO selected the UK-based Mott MacDonald to provide the project management consultancy services of the NEB 3 project, onshore and offshore.
According to the terms of its contract Mott MacDonald will support ADNOC and its partners BP, ExxonMobil, Shell, Total and Partex, for the FEED and the EPC work of ADCO North East Bab third phase (NEB 3) project.