India’s Larsen & Toubro has won a $235m contract to construct a major gas processing plant in Oman, according to two sources close to the bidding process.

The company will oversee the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) of phase two the Saih Rawl depletion compression project for operator Petroleum Development Oman (PDO).

The project, located in Ad Dakhiliyah governorate, north-central Oman, aims to sustain the Saih Rawl gas field’s production capacity as the reservoir pressure declines over time.

Saih Rawl is mainly used to feed the sultanate’s liquefied natural gas (LNG) industry and back up other fields that get taken down for maintenance.

Larsen & Toubro submitted the lowest bid for the EPC contract, which was tendered at the beginning of 2012, ahead of several international engineering firms. The project is expected to be competed in the first quarter of 2015.

Other contractors submitting bids in June included Switzerland’s ABB; Athens-based Consolidated Contractors Company (CCC); South Korea’s GS Engineering & Construction; Abu Dhabi-based National Petroleum Construction Company (NPCC); French group Technip; and Spain’s Tecnicas Reunidas.

PDO is 60 per cent owned by the government of Oman, with 34 per cent owned by UK/Dutch Shell Group, 4 per cent by France’s Total and 2 per cent by Portugal’s Partex.

The company has delayed the tender of another compression depletion project at its Yibal gas field in Al-Wusta governorate until mid-September. The EPC contract is valued at about $300m.