Gasco Contracts Offshore Pipelines.

A consortium of Abu Dhabi-based National Petroleum Construction Company (NPCC) and the Athens-based Lebanese concern Consolidated Contractors International Company (CCC) has won two contracts worth ($340m from Abu Dhabi Gas Industries Co. (Gasco) to build pipelines and install related facilities for the offshore associated gas (OAG) project. The first contract, worth $290m and for lot 3 of the OAG work programme, calls for the laying of a 30-inch, 90-km, gasline linking Ras al-Qila to the Habshan gas processing complex, construction of substations and buildings to house equipment and compressors, and associated works. The second contract, worth about $50m, covers the engineering, procurement construction (EPC) and start-up of a 36-inch, 50-km gasline to link the onshore Bu Hasa field to Habshan, as well as installation of chemical injection facilities at Bu Hasa, a raclette receiver, a condensate separator and a control room at Habshan.

The OAG project forms part of Gasco's strategy for inter-connecting its offshore and onshore gas processing centres. The work is scheduled for completion in April 2008. The pipeline will have the capacity to transport about 200 MCF/day of gas. The contracts for two other works packages for this project - new dehydration and gas compression facilities on Das Island and a 117-km gasline linking Das Island to Ras al-Qila - are to be awarded before end-2006. (CCC, working in Abu Dhabi for decades, has been founding partner in NPCC along with the state-owned Abu Dhabi National Oil Co. - ADNOC).

The inter-connection will give both Gasco and the LNG-exporting Abu Dhabi Natural Gas Co. (ADGAS) flexibility to increase their output of gas liquids (see survey of Abu Dhabi to be serialised in APS Review in January 2007).

Qatar GTL Exports Soon: Oryx GTL, a joint venture between QP and Sasol of South Africa to produce ultra-clean gas-to-liquids fuels, is set to begin exports from December this year. The shipments will be mainly routed to Europe and Asia. The EPC contractors of the GTL plant are entrusted with the responsibility to deliver a complete project. There has been a delay in completing construction.

In March 2004, Sasol-Chevron and QP announced plans for 100,000 b/d of production under a JV called Oryx GTL-II. Initial production is close to 34,000 b/d of ultra-clean fuels - with the break-down being 22,000 b/d for diesel, 9,000-10,000 b/d for naphtha and 2,000 b/d for LPG.