The UAE’s Masdar Carbon and state-owned Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (Adnoc) have launched a tender for an estimated $500m carbon capture facility next to the Emirates Steel complex in Mussafah, Abu Dhabi.

The planned facility will capture and store nearly 800,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide-rich gas a year from the steel complex. According to sources close to the project, at least 12 firms have been prequalified to bid by 15 April, including:

• Chiyoda (Japan)
• Consolidated Contractors Company (Athens-based)
• Dodsal (Dubai-based)
• GS Engineering & Construction (South Korea)
• Hyundai Engineering & Construction (South Korea)
• National Petroleum Construction Company (UAE)
• Petrofac (UK)
• Saipem (Italy)
• Samsung Engineering (South Korea)
• SNC Lavalin (Canada)
• Technip (France)
• Tecnicas Reunidas (Spain)

The project is led by Masdar Carbon, the carbon capture and storage arm of the Masdar initiative, which signed an agreement with state-owned Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (Adnoc) earlier in 2012, setting out the commercial principles for the facility. The front-end engineering and design (feed) has been carried out by the US’ Mustang.

Emissions from the Emirates Steel plant will be transferred to a common compression and dehydration facility at the project site in Mussafah. It will then be compressed to produce a carbon dioxide stream, which will be transferred over 50 kilometres by pipeline for injection in an oil field operated by Abu Dhabi Company for Onshore Oil Operations, a subsidiary of Adnoc.