The UK-based Petrofac has been awarded a $1bn-plus engineering and procurement (EP) contract by Petroleum Development Oman (PDO) to provide services on its Rabab Harweel Integrated Project (RHIP) in the south of the sultanate.

The four-and-a-half-year deal will also see Petrofac supporting PDO during the scheme’s construction and start-up phases.

RHIP, located in the Harweel cluster of onshore fields, will include sour gas processing facilities, associated gas injection systems and export pipelines. It will handle the production of oil and gas from the Harweel oil reservoirs using miscible gas injections and the production of gas with condensate from the Rabab reservoir through partial recycling of sour gas.

The facility has the capacity to export 4.9 million cubic metres a day (cm/d) of sweet gas and 9,700 cm/d of condensate in addition to about 16 million cm/d of high-pressure sour injection.

The total contract value is expected to be more than $1bn, with about one quarter of the revenues relating to professional services such as engineering, construction and commissioning management, according to Petrofac.

RHIP is the first of three major oil and gas field development schemes to be awarded by PDO to help sustain the sultanate’s hydrocarbons production beyond the end of the decade. It is due to be followed by tenders on the Yibal Khuff and Budour development projects.

PDO accounts for more than 70 per cent of Oman’s crude production and nearly all of its natural gas supply. The government holds a 60 per cent stake in the company, with 34 per cent held by the UK/Dutch Shell Group, 4 per cent by France’s Total and 2 per cent by Portugal’s Partex.