Petroleum Development Oman (PDO) has prequalified six contractors for the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract for the estimated $250m Lekhwair Gas Field Development in the sultanate.

The tender for the project was sent out in December and submissions for both technical and commercial bids are expected to be submitted by 5 March. PDO will announce the winner some time in the second quarter of 2011.

“We are formulating our bid now,” says a source from one of the competing contractors. ”This is quite a large project for Oman and will run for three years, so we are expecting it to be competitive.”

The six EPC contractors are:

• Al-Hassan Engineering Company (Oman)
• Galfar Engineering & Contracting (Oman)
• GS Engineering & Construction (South Korea)
• Hyundai Engineering & Construction (South Korea)
• Petrofac (UK)
• Samsung Engineering (South Korea)

When completed in late 2014, the Lekhwair Gas Development project will treat about 3 million cubic metres a day (cm/d) of wet, sour natural gas from the Lekhwair gas field.

The gas, condensate and water will then be sent via the gathering system to a gas plant where it will be treated.

Holland’s Tebodin Consultants & Engineers are carrying out a portion of the front end engineering and design for the scheme. PDO’s in-house team carrying out selected consultancy work as well as feed services for the ‘off plot’ section of the project.  

“The feed was completed on time and with no problems,” a source familiar with the project says. “The site is now ready for construction work to begin.”  

The scope of works for the project will include the construction of a field gathering system, associated gas export facilities, condensate export pipelines and a liquid surge tank.

The government of Oman owns a 60 per cent share of the project, with the Anglo Dutch Shell owning 34 per cent, France’s Total has 4 per cent and Portugal’s Partex has 2 per cent.