UAE-based Dana Gas has awarded a $17m contract to the local Adyard Abu Dhabi to build an offshore platform at the Zora gas field, which is split between the emirates of Ajman and Sharjah.

The contract is the first deal reported on the Zora field development project, which will also include a 35-kilometre subsea pipeline and an onshore processing facility in Sharjah.

Adyard will manufacture and erect the platform in a water depth of 24 metres along with associated facilities.

Dana Gas has earmarked an investment of $160m in the project, which is expected to start up in the first half of 2015 with a production of 40 million cubic feet a day.

The company is expected to award contracts on the pipeline and gas processing facilities in the coming months.

The scheme is a significant development for the northern emirates of the UAE, which are eclipsed by their larger neighbour Abu Dhabi in terms of oil and gas production.

Ajman and Sharjah signed an agreement in 2012 covering the shared management of the field, gas sales and purchase agreements and a joint operating agreement with the two emirates.