Technical bids are now due to be submitted on 18 December for the two OPD contracts, including instrumentation work, flowlines and xmas trees, for the north and south of the country. Each is worth about $75 million a year. Technical and commercial bids are also due on 10 January for the north and south contracts covering engineering and maintenance work, each worth about $25 million a year. About 10 companies are prequalified for the two types of contract.

PDO has also given a short extension to 18 December for the submission of bids for the combined front-end engineering and design (FEED) and engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract on the Al-Kawther gas gathering project. The two prospective bidders for the $200 million scheme are Sharjah-based Petrofac Internationalwith the local Galfar Engineering Contracting, and Canada's SNC Lavalinwith the local Al-Hassan Engineering(MEED 22:10:04).