The bidders include the local Al-Hussam General Contracting, Lebanon's CAT, Athens-based Consolidated Contractors International Company (CCC), Oman's Galfar Engineering & Contracting, the local Matrix, India's Punj Lloyd, and a local company identified as Bin Frieh.

Commercial proposals will be invited once technical evaluation is completed.

The contract, which is worth up to $100m, covers the installation of flowlines and wellhead installations to Adco. The successful contractor will be employed on a call-on, call-off basis, carrying out work as and when required. The consultants on the project are Canada's Veco and the UK's Mott MacDonald.

The scheme covers the Sahil, Asab and Shah (SAS) fields, and is a precursor to the multi-billion-dollar SAS full-field development, the technical bids for which are due on 28 April.