Abu Dhabi’s Zakum Development Company (Zadco) has awarded a $220m contract to the local Al-Jaber Energy for civil works at the offshore Uppper Zakum oil field.

Al-Jaber received a letter of award on 13 February for work to build camps and accommodation at an artificial island built by the local National Marine Dredging Company, a source close to the project tells MEED.

Zadco is building four artificial islands off the coast of Abu Dhabi to house drilling platforms, oil production facilities and supporting infrastructure as part of its plans to increase production at the Upper Zakum field to 750,000 barrels a day (b/d) by 2015 from 500,000 b/d currently.

NMDC won the $626m contract for the construction of the four artificial islands in November 2009. The first island was completed at the end of 2011. The construction of all four islands is expected to be completed by the end of 2012.

At least four international engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contractors will submit commercial proposals for the offshore production facilities on 4 March. These include

• Hyundai Heavy Industries (South Korea)
• UAE-based McDermott
• Saipem (Italy)
• France’s Technip with the local National Petroleum Construction Company (NPCC)