The four bidders for the NEAD contract are Paris-based Technip-Coflexip with the local National Petroleum Construction Company (NPCC), Chiyoda Corporation of Japan, Bouygues Offshore of France and Italy's Snamprogetti. Companies are preparing to submit quotes on 22 October for the second part of the technical bid package. Commercial bids are provisionally due to go in on 17 November. The 40-42-month contract will cover the supply and installation of two crude oil processing trains, in-field pipeline works, the installation of a pipeline to transport crude to Habshan and related facilities.

Estimated to be worth $350 million-400 million, the project involves increasing oil production from the onshore Rumaitha and Al-Dabbiyah fields to a sustainable capacity of 150,000 barrels a day (b/d) and a maximum level of 180,000 b/d. The two fields are producing about 15,000-20,000 b/d at present.

On the estimated $100 million Bab project, four groups of companies - Technip-Coflexip with NPCC, Japan's JGC Corporation, US-based Foster Wheeler Corporation and Snamprogetti - submitted commercial bids in early October.

The project, targeted for completion at the end of 2004, calls for a 100,000-b/d expansion in production capacity at Bab. At present, the onshore field has a capacity to produce 250,000 b/d. The contract entails the supply and installation of two processing trains, two and three-phase separators, a degassing station and related pipeline works.

The front-end engineering and design (FEED) packages for both schemes have been carried out by Technip-Coflexip, with US-based VECO as the project manager.