State-run Abu Dhabi Marine Operating Company (Adma-Opco) has invited international engineering & construction firms to express interest in the development of the offshore Satah al-Razboot (Sarb) field.

Contractors were sent letters by Adma-Opco on 12 December, according to a source close to the project.

The US’ Fluor is currently designing Sarb’s offshore facilities, which can pump 100,000 barrels a day (b/d) of oil from the previously untapped field. The front-end engineering and design (feed) is expected to be completed in January. The tender will then be finalised before being released to potential contractors in April.

Sources close to the scheme say the deal, estimated at more than $1.5bn, will be broken down into four packages, covering site preparation and construction of a jetty and seawater lift pumps; accommodation and administration buildings on the nearby Zirku Island; offshore pipelines and structures, including early work on the artificial islands; and the main plant on Zirku Island. Adma is currently soliciting interest from engineering firms for the third and fourth packages. Firms can express interest in one or both.

Bids are expected to be submitted in October 2011.

Adma-opco’s sister company, Zakum Development Company (Zadco), is using a similar scheme, with four artificial islands, to boost production at the offshore Upper Zakum field by 250,000 b/d to 750,000 b/d (MEED 10:12:10).

The project is part of a programme being led by the two offshore operators in the emirate, Adma-Opco and Zadco, to boost Abu Dhabi’s offshore production capacity from 1.1 million b/d currently to 1.75 million b/d by 2020. The two companies are expected to award deals worth up to $25bn by 2014 to meet their targets.

Adma-Opco is targeting 300,000 b/d of additional production from four new offshore fields; Ghasha-Butini-West Mubarraz, Umm Lulu, Nasr and Satah al-Razboot, by 2014 as part of Abu Dhabi’s plan to increase production to 1.75 million b/d by 2020.