Abu Dhabi Marine Operating Company (Adma-Opco) has entered into talks with two engineering and construction firms for an estimated $1.5bn scheme to build early production facilities at the offshore Umm Lulu and Nasr fields.

India’s Larsen & Toubro and the local National Petroleum Construction Company (NPCC) submitted the two lowest bids for the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) deal.

Five firms submitted bids on 11 January, after being delayed three times from the original September 2010 deadline, including:

• NPCC
• Larsen & Toubro
• Saipem (Italy)
• Technip (France)
• Hyundai Heavy Industries (South Korea)

The offshore developer wants to add 300,000 barrels a day (b/d) of additional production from four new offshore fields as part of Abu Dhabi’s plan to increase production to 1.75 million b/d by 2020 (MEED 5:8:10).

This includes 165,000 b/d from the two fields with the new facilities linked to existing production units at the adjacent Umm al-Dalkh field. About 100,000 b/d will come from the Umm Lulu field, with the remaining 65,000 b/d coming from the Nasr field, which will be developed in two phases. The first phase will produce 25,000 b/d by 2015. The second will add 40,000 b/d by 2018.