The UAE’s National Petroleum Construction Company (NPCC) has secured a $62m contract to upgrade pipelines at the offshore Idd al-Shargi North Dome oilfield in Qatar.

Occidental Petroleum of Qatar awarded the contract to NPCC at the end of February, a source close the deal tells MEED.

The contract is part of a third-phase of upgrades to Occidental’s infrastructure at the field. Occidental and NPCC declined to comment on the exact scope of the deal.

The Abu Dhabi-based firm beat bids from Jebel Ali-based J Ray McDermott and the US’ Global Offshore, according to sources close to the project.

The field is broken down into two reservoirs, Idd al-Shargi North Dome and Idd al-Shargi South Dome, and lies some 80 kilometres off the east coast of Qatar.

Occidental signed a 25-year production sharing agreement to develop the estimated 4 billion-barrel field in 1994, when it was producing 20,000 barrels a day (b/d) of oil. A second phase development aimed at increasing production to 127,000 b/d began in 2002. In order to boost production further, Occidental is now moving ahead with a third phase of development.

The programme includes three new platforms, processing facilities and upgrading the current pipelines, subsea lines and facilities.