Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (Adnoc) has awarded two contracts totalling $2bn to its subsidiary Adnoc Drilling for the Hail and Ghasha offshore sour gas field development project.

The awards comprise a $1.3bn contract for integrated drilling services and fluids, and a $711m contract for the provision of four island drilling units. Their duration is 10 years.

Adnoc also awarded a third contract, valued at $681m, to another subsidiary company, Adnoc Logistics & Services, to provide offshore logistics and marine support services for the planned Hail and Ghasha development.

“Overall, more than 80 per cent of the value of the awards will flow back into the UAE’s economy under Adnoc’s successful In-Country Value (ICV) programme and all three of the contracts will cover the Hail and Ghasha drilling campaign for a maximum of 10 years,” Adnoc said.

“The Hail and Ghasha development project is part of the Ghasha concession, which is the world’s largest offshore sour gas development and a key component of Adnoc’s integrated gas masterplan as well as an important enabler of gas self-sufficiency for the UAE.” 

Hail and Ghasha megaproject

MEED reported in March that Adnoc had received prequalification documents from contractors for the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) works on its Hail and Ghasha offshore sour gas field development project.

In November 2021, Adnoc awarded France-headquartered Technip Energies a contract to revise the front-end engineering and design (feed) on the Hail and Ghasha scheme. Revised feed works on the Hail and Ghasha project are expected to be completed by the end of the year.

The revised feed works aim to reduce the overall capital expenditure on the Hail and Ghasha scheme, which was previously estimated to be worth $15bn.

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Adnoc is considering two different approaches for the Hail and Ghasha project, with both options consisting of three main EPC packages, sources previously told MEED.

Both alternatives involve building offshore drilling centres, a central offshore processing plant, an onshore processing plant, central living quarters, subsea pipelines, umbilicals, riser platforms, offsite export pipelines and other utilities.

Ghasha gas production

The Hail and Ghasha fields, along with the Hair Dalma, Satah, Bu Haseer, Nasr, Sarb, Shuwaihat and Mubarraz fields, are located in Abu Dhabi’s offshore Ghasha concession. 

Adnoc intends to produce more than 1.5 billion cubic feet a day of sour gas from the Ghasha concession by the middle of this decade. Four artificial islands have already been completed and development drilling is under way.

In November last year, Adnoc and its partners in the Ghasha concession awarded two EPC contracts for the Dalma offshore sour gas development project. Abu Dhabi’s National Petroleum Construction Company (NPCC) and Spain-headquartered Tecnicas Reunidas won contracts worth a total of $1.46bn for the execution of offshore and onshore EPC works on the Dalma project, respectively.