Case studies

Project: Service operator contract

Client: Sharjah National Oil Corporation

Value: >US$250 million

Location: 30 km from commercial centre of Sharjah, UAE

In 2010, Petrofac was awarded a five-year Service Operator contract by the Sharjah National Oil Corporation (SNOC) to operate the Sajaa Gas Plant, an onshore gas processing facility located in Sharjah.

The Sajaa Gas Plant is Sharjah’s largest production facility and is an important source of export of revenue for the Emirate. The facility provides a large percentage of fuel gas for the local power stations in Sharjah and sits at the centre of the gas distribution network for Sharjah and the Northern Emirates. Maintaining optimum production and mitigating any potential flow issues was therefore an essential deliverable for us.

Our scope of service was to facilitate the transition of this critical operating infrastructure from IOC operatorship to Government operatorship on the completion of the 35 year period concession with the IOC. 

Petrofac has a long established portfolio of managed facilities in the UK North Sea, where we pioneered the Service Operator/Duty Holder model. This expertise meant we were well equipped to ensure a smooth transition and deliver the facilities management services to the Sharjah government.

During the five-year project we provided a full range of facilities management services including:

• HSE and asset integrity management
• Reservoir and well management
• Plant operations and maintenance
• Engineering and project management
• Business support services

Safety

Throughout the project we maintained an exemplary health and safety record:

• Five years without a Lost Time Incident (LTI)
• 5 million man hours LTI free
• Over 3.4 million kilometres driven without incident

Key successes

The Sajaa Gas Plant was successful transitioned into Petrofac’s portfolio within a 12-week period from October 2010 including transfer of operation on 1st December 2010.

Other successes include:

• LPG plant shutdown to inspect critical vessels in March 2012
• Design and installation of two new Molecular Sieve trains in 2012 and 2015
• Inspection and full internal repair of three condensate tanks with total capacity 550,000 barrels
• ISO 14001 certified
• Repair programme for ex-equipment on the asset
• Extension of fire and gas system on the gas plant
• Completion of full field compression project in June 2014
• Single Buoy Mooring (SBM) integrity management including chains change out programme in August 2014
• Subsea pipeline dive inspection in September 2014

The Sajaa Duty Holder contract has been a great overall success. Petrofac and SNOC are both very proud of the relationship established over the five years. From the first day of the contract we worked closely together to deliver high performance on the asset. The people we have worked with have done a magnificent job and the asset has been handed over in great shape for SNOC’s operatorship in the future.

Mani Rajapathy, Managing Director, Engineering & Production Services East