Prospective bidders include the local National Petroleum Construction Company (NPCC), Athens-based Consolidated Contractors International Company (CCC), the US/Canadian VECO and Pakistan's Descon Engineering.

Known as the high-integrated pressure protection system (HIPPS), the contract is estimated to be worth $40 million and will take about a year to complete. The project is part of moves to increase gas-handling capacity at Thamama.

More work is planned at Thamama C. Commercial bids are due to be submitted by the revised deadline of 14 September for the front-end engineering and design (FEED) package involving a debottlenecking project. Four companies - Paris-based Technip, VECO, Tebodin Middle East, part of Tebodin of the Netherlands, and Australia's WorleyParsons - submitted technical bids in late July. The contract is aimed at increasing sour gas handling capacity to 630 million cubic feet a day (cf/d) from 540 million cf/d and also entails a revamp of the existing process plant, including the modification of the heat exchangers and compressors.

Four companies also submitted technical bids in late July for the FEED contract on the Bu Hasa debottlenecking project, which will cover a revamp of train 1 to meet the original design capacity of 300 million cf/d. The bidders are VECO, Technip, US-based Foster Wheelerand Tebodin. Both projects are being handled by Abu Dhabi Gas Industries Company (Gasco- MEED 5:8:05).