UK-based contract Petrofac has won an estimated $500m contract to build gas compression facilities at Abu Dhabi’s onshore Bab field, according to sources close to the bidding process.

The deal is Petrofac’s third major engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract this year in the Abu Dhabi oil and gas sector, having picked up two even larger deals on offshore developments in recent months.

The new contract is on phase two of the Bab compression facilities expansion scheme, owned by Abu Dhabi Company for Onshore Oil Operations (Adco).

Other companies vying for the contract include Spain’s Intecsa Industrial and South Korean groups Samsung Engineering and SK Engineering & Construction (SK E&C), which also submitted commercial bids on the EPC contract in the fourth quarter of 2012. MEED revealed that Petrofac had emerged as the lowest bidder in March.

The estimated $500m project includes a new compressor station and new gas-gathering system at the Bab field, 150 kilometres southwest of Abu Dhabi city. The work is part of the second-phase expansion of the Bab field, which will increase its capacity to 2.5 billion cubic feet a day (cf/d) from 1.8 billion cf/d.

The scope of the project includes a new compressor station comprising three compressors, a new gas-gathering system to accommodate 32 wells and associated facilities.

The compressors will maintain the pressure in the pipeline connecting Adco’s Bab gas-gathering operations to the Habshan gas processing and distribution hub.

US-based engineering group CH2M Hill recently won the project management consultancy (PMC) contract on the scheme.

Earlier this month, Petrofac and its bidding partner Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering were awarded a joint $3.7bn contract on the development of the offshore upper Zakum field. Earlier in the year the UK group won a $515m deal on the offshore Satah al-Razboot (Sarb) field development.

Adco is a joint venture of state-owned Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (Adnoc), the UK’s BP, the US’ ExxonMobil, the UK/Dutch Shell Group, France’s Total and Portugal’s Partex Oil & Gas.