The bidders include: Dubai-based Dodsal Group; US-based Petrofac International; Propac of Canada; and France's Sofresid,with Sharjah-based MIS.

A new tender was issued after prices in the original round of bidding in March 2002 came in above budget. The engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract calls for the construction of a 150 million-cubic-feet-a-day gas-processing and sweetening plant, test separators, slug catchers, storage facilities and civil works for a control system. The contract is estimated to be worth AED 185 million-220 million ($50 million-60 million).

The plant's feedstock will be sourced from an offshore discovery, located about 23 kilometres from the mainland. Technip Abu Dhabi, part of Paris-based Technip-Coflexip, had originally carried out the front-end engineering and design (FEED) for the project. Later, the Singapore office of Kvaerner E&C, part of the Oslo-based Aker Kvaerner Group, carried out a fresh FEED study.

The facilities will take 14 months to complete. The client is Gulf Energy Company, a joint venture between Atlantis Holdings Norwayand Dolphin Investment Company, part of Abu Dhabi-based UAE Offsets Group (MEED 11:1:02).