Abu Dhabi wants to boost the capacity of its largest field, Upper Zakum, to 1 million barrels a day (b/d) in the “longer term”, up from a previous target of 750,000 (b/d), according to a senior executive from the project’s operator.

The offshore field is currently operating at 585,000 b/d and is being increased to 750,000 b/d in the “short term”, said Ali Hassan al-Marzooqi, senior vice president at Zakum Development Company (Zadco), speaking at Adipec 2013 in Abu Dhabi on 11 November.

Zadco awarded the EPC contracts on Upper Zakum’s early production facilities in 2012 and early 2013 with the largest contract, worth $3.7bn, awarded to a consortium of UK-based Petrofac and South Korea’s Daewoo Shipbuilding & Engineering (DSME).

Zadco has built four artificial islands to support drilling rigs as an alternative to installing new wellhead platforms and flowlines.

Al-Marzooqi said there was space for almost 1,000 new wells and new processing facilities for greatly extended life.

The Upper Zakum field, which Zadco believes is the world’s fourth largest, is located 84 kilometres off the coast of Abu Dhabi.

Abu Dhabi is boosting production at Upper Zakum and several other offshore fields as part of its plans to increase crude production capacity to 3.5 million b/d by 2017.

Zadco is a joint venture of state-owned Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (Adnoc), US-based oil major ExxonMobil and Japan Oil Development Company (Jodco).