Abu Dhabi Gas Industries Company (Gasco) is assessing bids for the deal to build a 100-kilometre pipeline linking the company’s production facilities in the northeast and southwest of the emirate, according to contractors bidding on the deal.

Eight international firms submitted commercial bids outlining proposed cost structures for the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract on 15 November.

The winning bidder will replace the existing 36-inch pipeline that carries ethane and methane-rich lean gas and links Gasco’s Thamma C production facilities in the northeast with the state-owned enterprise’s Asab facilities in the southwest.

The bidders were Larsen & Toubro and Punj Lloyd of India, the UAE’s Dodsal and National Petroleum Construction Company, Athens-based Consolidated Contractors Company, US/Canadian Veco, the US’ Willbros Group, and Lebanon’s Contracting & Trading.

Veco is now working on a front-end engineering and design (Feed) contract on the project.

The project is part of a $1bn-plus scheme to improve the gas production, processing and distribution infrastructure at the Asab, Bab, Bu Hasa and Ruwais fields by 150 million cubic feet a day. The scheme is known as ABBR.

France’s Technip won a $480m contract to build a gas compressor at Asab as part of the project on 16 November.