Occidental Mukhaizna, a subsidiary of the US’ Occidental Petroleum, plans to award a $100m-plus deal to build a crude oil stabilisation plant in Oman in early March, according to contractors in talk with the firm.

Occidental completed a series of discussions with bidders over the technical details of the project in early February, and will now assess commercial bids outlining cost proposals, one business development executive working on a bid tells MEED.

“They will be opening prices very soon,” he says. “We would expect to know who the winner is by the first week of March.”

The winning bidder will build facilities to maintain reservoir pressure and production levels at the Mukhaizna field, which Occidental is developing. The engineering, procurement and construction deal covers the construction of new oil handling trains, storage tanks, compressors, water separation facilities, and a series of new pipelines.

Firms bidding on the deal include the local Al-Hassan Engineering, Arabian Industries, Galfar Engineering & Contracting, Gulf Petrochemical Services and Trading, and Special Technical Services.

The deal is a one of a series of projects under development in Oman to increase hydrocarbons production using enhanced oil recovery techniques. Output from the country’s ageing oilfields peaked in 1997 when it produced 909,000 barrels a day (b/d) of oil. Oman produced 728,000 b/d in 2008, according to the UK’s BP.