Swiss industrial technology services provider ABB has said it has been awarded an automation, electrification and telecommunication order in the second quarter of this year, worth $79m, for the upgrade of the Bab onshore oil and gas field in Abu Dhabi.

The order was a sub-contract awarded by China Petroleum Engineering and Construction Corporation (CPECC), the main contractor working on the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (Adnoc) project.

Adnoc Onshore formally awarded the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract to CPECC, for raising the field’s production capacity from about 420,000 barrels a day (b/d) currently to 450,000 b/d by 2020, in November last year.

Spanning 1,200 square kilometres, Bab is the largest onshore oil field in Abu Dhabi.

The scope of ABB’s work will include installation of its Electrical, Control and Telecommunication (ECT) system with 45 power and capacitor bank skids, as well as centralised and localised automation systems.

"ABB Ability digital oil field technology will further enhance the ECT solution to remotely monitor and analyse field performance where multiple oil wells will be co-located in one place," it said in a statement.

ABB claims that post installation the system is expected to reduce the oil field’s operating expenditures by 10 to 15 per cent.