Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (Adnoc) is preparing to award a major EPC contract on its onshore Bab Integrated Facilities to China Petroleum Engineering & Construction Corporation (CPECC) next week, according to sources close to the scheme.

The Chinese firm is understood to have submitted a bid with an estimated value of $1.5bn.

The announcement of the project award to the CPECC is expected to take place during the Abu Dhabi International Petroleum Exhibition and Conference (Adipec) which is due to take place from 13 to 16 November.

The planned oil and gas project - one of the largest in the UAE - was tendered by Adnoc Onshore, previously known as Adco, which oversees the state-backed firm's onshore concessions.

Revised bids for the engineering procurement and construction contract were submitted on 10 September after a series of deadline extensions.

Earlier companies were asked to submit bids by 18 June. This was subsequently extended to 8 August – when bids were submitted by companies.

Then Adnoc Onshore asked companies to submit a new set of revised bids by 10 September.

MEED understands that the companies which submitted bids are:

• SK Engineering & Construction (South Korea) / Intecsa (Spain)
• Tecnicas Reunidas (Spain)
• Saipem (Italy)
• JGC (Japan) / National Petroleum Construction Company (UAE)
• China Petroleum Engineering & Construction Corporation (China)
• Petrofac (UK)

Adnoc Onshore re-tendered the Bab integrated facilities expansion scheme on 22 December, a year after cancelling a previous tender on the project.

The re-tendered version of the project had a reduced scope of works and the estimated budget was reduced from $3bn to about $2bn. The expansion is set to boost production rate to 450,000 barrels a day.