State-run energy firm Qatar Petroleum (QP) and its joint venture partner US oil major ExxonMobil have pushed back the deadline for commercial submissions on the onshore portion of the Barzan gas development by one week to 5 November.

Technical bids were submitted by four groups in August for the estimated $1.7bn engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) deal. These include:

• Technip (France)
• Saipem (Italy) and CTCI Corporation (Taiwan)
• Chiyoda Corporation (Japan) and Samsung Engineering (South Korea)
• JGC (Japan)

Technical bids for the offshore portion of the Barzan gas scheme were submitted on 15 July and commercials on 30 September. Bidders include:

• Saipem
• J Ray McDermott (Jebel Ali-based)
• Hyundai Heavy Industries (South Korea)
• National Petroleum Construction Company (UAE)

Energy & Industry Minister Abdullah bin Hamad al-Attiyah said earlier this year that the country expects to award the contracts for the Barzan scheme by the end of 2010, although contractors bidding for the scheme say an award is expected by January 2011 at the earliest.

Al-Attiyah told delegates at the MEED Qatar Projects 2010 conference in Doha in January that Doha had delayed the tendering process in 2009 to take advantage of falling EPC costs across the Gulf (MEED 26:1:10).

The project aims to produce 6.2 billion cubic feet a day (cf/d) over three phases to meet the natural gas requirements of Qatar’s power and water generating companies, as well as providing potential feedstock for downstream petrochemicals production.

The first phase, due for completion by the end of 2013, involves the construction of two onshore gas processing trains, with a combined capacity of 1.7 billion cf/d at Ras Laffan in the north of the emirate.