State-run Abu Dhabi Marine Operating Company (Adma-Opco) has selected a contractor to carry out the $300m upgrade of its oil and gas processing facilities at the offshore Lower Zakum oil field.

Contractors that bid on the deal say Adma-Opco has chosen the local National Petroleum Construction Company (NPCC) after the firm submitted the lowest price in a competitive bid round at the end of September.

The engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) deal is part of the company’s plans to boost production at the Lower Zakum field by 100,000 barrels a day (b/d) to 425,000 b/d by 2015.

One senior Adma-Opco source confirms that a contractor has been selected but declined to name the winner.

“We have passed our recommendations over to the SPC [Supreme Petroleum Council] and it is now in their hands,” says the Adma-Opco source.

The SPC is the emirate’s highest decision-making body in the oil and gas sector and must approve all contract awards before work can begin.

An award is still likely before the end of 2009, says the source.

The contract covers the ‘demothballing’ of the Zakum central super complex, an underused network of offshore oil and gas processing facilities.

Adma-Opco decommissioned the complex in 1985 and, although it reopened the facilities in 1988, they still only operate at about 50 per cent of capacity.

Adma-Opco wants to revamp the processing facilities so that they can handle 300,000 b/d of oil by the end of 2012.

Contractors say Adma-Opco has shelved plans to combine the contract with a second deal at the field to build an offshore platform and seawater injection facilities.

The deadline for commercial bids outlining cost structures for the second deal is 16 November.

Adma-Opco prequalified the same group of companies for both deals: the UK’s Petrofac, France’s Technip, NPCC, and India’s Larsen & Toubro.