The award, covering civils, mechanical, instrumentation and electrical works, was placed by a joint venture of Japan's JGC Corporation, with Italy's Tecnimont and its French subsidiary, Sofregaz. The JGC-led team signed in late January the Eur 1,200 million ($1,033 million) engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract to build onshore and offshore production and gas treatment facilities in Block NC-169, 550 kilometres southwest of Tripoli (MEED 8:2:02).

Daewoo's scope of work covers all onshore and offshore civil works, including the construction of site facilities, concrete structures and gas-gathering infrastructure. The contract also entails the installation of mechanical equipment, instrumentation and electrical utilities. The work is scheduled to take 27 months to complete. Paris-based Technip-Coflexipis acting as the project management consultant (PMC).

The plant forms part of the $4,500 million Western Desert gas project being undertaken by Agip Gas, a joint venture between Italy's Eni and the National Oil Corporation. Agip has secured firm agreements to supply 8,000 million cubic metres a year of gas to customers in mainland Europe via the $1,000 million Greenstream export pipeline, which is planned to run from Melitah on the Algerian border to Gela in Sicily. Supplies are scheduled to start in 2004-05 (MEED 8:3:02, Cover Story).