International engineering contractors expect Abu Dhabi’s Zakum Development Company (Zadco) to send out bid documents for the $500m deal to build production facilities at its offshore Satah oilfield by 16 May.

The engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract covers the construction of new offshore facilities, and the upgrade of existing facilities and pipelines at Satah as part of a wider $500m programme to boost production at the field.

Contractors had expected Zadco to release a formal invitation to bid on the deal in early May, but now say that the offshore developer will release the tender documents on 16 May at the latest.

Zadco sent out an invitation to bid on a $150-200m EPC deal to build new produced water facilities at the field in early April.

Meanwhile, five engineering firms submitted technical bids for the project management consultancy (PMC) deal to oversee the EPC contractors in February, and expect to be asked to submit final commercial bids for the PMC deal by the end of May.

Under the development scheme, gas produced by Zadco will be injected into the Satah field to boost production to about 25,000 barrels a day (b/d) from undisclosed production levels currently. Contractors value the deal at about $500m.

The project is part of a wider scheme to boost production of the three fields Zadco operates to around 800,000 b/d by 2015. The company also wants to produce 750,000 b/d from the Upper Zakum field by 2015 and 70,000 b/d from the smaller Umm al-Dalkh reservoir.