Petrofac Secures New Gas Plant Contract in Oman

International oil services company Petrofac has secured a contract with the Sultanate of Oman’s Ministry of Oil & Gas (MOG) to build a new gas plant in the Kauther field in north Oman. The single-train plant will recover valuable gas and condensate reserves. The Kauther field is being developed and operated by Petroleum Development Oman (PDO) on behalf of the MOG.

The three-year contract, valued at more than USD 200 million, will be executed through Petrofac Engineering & Construction from its base in Sharjah.  Petrofac is tasked with engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) of the 20 million standard cubic metre facilities over a twenty-four month period and will then operate the plant for an initial one-year period.  The project will draw on capability across the Petrofac group from engineering and construction through to operations services.

Commenting on the award, Maroun Semaan, CEO, Petrofac Engineering & Construction, said, “This award marks Petrofac’s re-entry into Oman which we consider to be a strategically important market for the group.  We are pleased to be working with PDO again and our long-term Omani construction partner, Galfar Engineering & Construction.”

Vice President of sales & marketing, Peter Warner added, “This is the first time PDO has implemented a ‘design competition’ type approach on a bid, whereby the bidders were responsible for undertaking the front-end engineering design within the EPC bidding process.  Such design competitions allow bidders to implement their own ideas into, and take ownership of, the front-end design within the constraints of functional specifications.”

PDO has recently completed commissioning a gas plant of a similar size in Saih Nihayda in the Sultanate and this most recent contract is evidence of the growth in Oman’s gas industry.  PDO’s Gas Engineering Manager, Abdallah Al Aufi said, “We are pleased to welcome Petrofac back to our family of contractors. We have worked together effectively to execute a novel way of tendering, and I believe Petrofac’s experience and commitment will ensure this project’s success.”

This is Petrofac’s first project in Oman since the successful completion of the North Oman Crude Stabilisation Project for PDO in 1994. The new plant at Kauther is important to the country as it will produce a high level of condensate in addition to gas.  The conditioned gas is to be exported into the existing Government gas system and the condensate is to be exported from Kauther to the existing Saih Rawl Central Processing Plant.

The Kauther field is located in the Al Dakhlia region of Oman, 50km south of the town of Adam and was discovered by PDO in 2001.