Petrofac Wins Gas Plant Contract In Egypt.

Petrofac, the international oil and gas facilities service provider, has been awarded a lump sum engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract by Khalda Petroleum Company (KPC) to build its fourth gas processing train at Salam area in Egypt's Western Desert. This second consecutive train, awarded to Petrofac by KPC during November, increases the Khalda contract from US$200m to a total of US$375m. KPC is the joint venture company between Apache Corp. of the US and the state-owned Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation (EGPC).

The project, scheduled for completion by the end of 2008, will be utilising the services and expertise of local construction and fabrication company Petrojet. The project scope covers the execution of project management, detailed design, procurement, construction, pre-commissioning, commissioning, start-up, performance testing and initial operations. KPC will be adding this fourth gas processing train to its existing and recently awarded similar gas facilities in the Salam area, to process gas produced from its new discoveries.

Commenting on the award, Maroun Sem'an, chief executive, Petrofac Engineering & Construction, on Nov. 27 was quoted as saying: "We are proud to receive this successive award from KPC which further consolidates our position in the Egyptian market. This award is also significant in reinforcing Petrofac's position in its core gas plant business and we look forward to working with KPC towards successful project delivery."

The new train, combined with the recently approved third train, will increase the capacity to process gas from Apache's Jurassic formation gas reserves to 710 MCF/day of gas and 66,000 b/d condensate, including access to processing capacity at Shell's Obaiyed plant. The expansions are scheduled to be completed before the end of 2008.

Current gross production from Apache's Jurassic fields is 512 MCF/day of gas and 18,200 b/d condensate, the limit of existing processing facilities. Apache's current net production froApache has awarded tracts totaling $375 million to Petrofac Limited to construct the third and fourth trains. Each of the new facilities will have capacity to process 100 MMcf of sales gas and 14,000 barrels of sales condensate per daym the fields is 224 MCF/day of gas and 8,000 b/d of liquid hydrocarbons.

Abu Dhabi LNG Transport Firm Marks 1,000th Shipment To Tokyo: The National Gas Shipping Co. (NGSCO), the LNG shipping arm of the state-owned Abu Dhabi National Oil Co. (ADNOC), last week celebrated its 1,000th shipment of LNG to Tokyo Bay. Samir Bailouni, the company's fleet manager, was on Dec. 1 quoted as saying: "With this shipment, the total amount of LNG shipped by the company since its inception reached 65m tons, worth more than $20 bn".

Saif al-Ghafli, general manager of Abu Dhabi Gas Liquefaction Co. (ADGAS), explained: "NGSCO's fleet is eight vessels strong, each with a capacity of 138,000 cubic metres of LNG, while our production stands at 5.2 million tons annually".

Last week, NGSCO announced that it had agreed with BP Shipping to the transfer of the full technical management of the NGSCO-owned al-Khaznah class LNG Carriers to NGSCO. The company went into partnership in 1994 with BP Shipping for BP to provide the technical management of its four al-Khaznah class LNG carriers built in Japan.

NGSCO has since developed its own pool of marine officers to a skill level which permits successful management of the vessels it owned. In 2004-05 NGSCO took full management of four Mubaraz class vessels from Golar Management UK Ltd and has been successfully operating them from its base office in Abu Dhabi.

The return of these vessels to their owner's management coincides with the arrival of BP Shipping's latest batch of new builds, four LPG and four LNG, securing continued employment of all staff into the future.

NGSCO will assume full responsibility for management of the first two vessels during the planned transition period from November 2006 through to January 2007.

Each year NGSCO ships deliver some 85 LNG cargoes to the terminals in Tokyo Bay of Tokyo Electric Power Co. (Tepco). The distance from Das Island to Tokyo, at 6,500 nautical miles, still represents the world's longest established LNG trading route.

NGSCO has delivered over 900 LNG and over 60 LPG cargoes.