QatarEnergy awards $6 billion EPC contracts to boost Al-Shaheen oil production

QatarEnergy has announced the award of the four main Engineering, Procurement, Construction, and Installation (EPCI) contract packages related to the next development phase of the offshore Al-Shaheen field (Qatar’s largest oil field) to increase production by about 100,000 barrels of oil per day (BPD).

The award is part of Project Ru’ya (vision in Arabic), which is the third phase of Al-Shaheen’s development since North Oil Company, a joint venture between QatarEnergy (70%) and TotalEnergies (30%), took over the field’s operation in July 2017, the company said in a statement.

Project Ru’ya, which will develop more than 550 million barrels of oil, will be executed over a period of 5 years with first oil expected in 2027. The project includes the drilling of more than 200 wells and the installation of a new centralised process complex, nine remote wellhead platforms, and associated pipelines.

The four EPC packages, with varying scopes of work, valued in total at more than six billion dollars, comprise of:

1. The EPC package for 9 wellhead platforms valued at about $2.1 billion and awarded to a consortium of McDermott Middle East Inc. and Qingdao McDermott Wuchuan Offshore Engineering Co.;
2. The EPC package for a Central Processing Platform valued at about $1.9 billion and awarded to a consortium of McDermott Middle East Inc. and Hyundai Heavy Industries;
3. The EPC package for a riser platform valued at about $1.3 billion and awarded to Larsen & Toubro Limited; and
4. The EPC package for subsea pipelines and cables valued at about $900 million and awarded to China Offshore Oil Engineering Co (COOEC).

His Excellency Saad Sherida Al-Kaabi, the Minister of State for Energy Affairs, the President and CEO of QatarEnergy, welcomed the award of the contract packages as an important milestone in the development of Qatar’s largest oil field. “By awarding these contracts, we are taking an important step towards realising the full potential of Al-Shaheen filed, which produces around half of Qatar’s crude oil today,” he said.

“I would like to thank North Oil Company and our longtime strategic partner TotalEnergies for their great efforts towards unlocking the true potential of Qatar’s hydrocarbon resources and maximizing value from Al-Shaheen field through the implementation of world-class development and operational excellence programmes,” the Minister added.

Al-Shaheen field is located 80km offshore Qatar and is among the world’s largest in terms of “oil in place”. The field commenced commercial production in 1994 and underwent significant development to reach an oil production rate of 300,000 bpd in 2007.