Qatar Petroleum (QP) has delayed the award of a a pre-construction package of an offshore protection project in Qatar by asking bidders to resubmit their commercial bids.

The bids are for services that include a feasibility study and front-end engineering and design (feed) work for eight offshore sensor towers used for surveillance.

Technical and commercial bids were submitted together in March, and companies expected the contract to be awarded by the end of June.

Since then, QP has asked for the commercial bids to be resubmitted twice.

“We were told to resubmit with revised quotations,” said a source at a bidding contractor. The latest revised bid was submitted in the second week of June, he added.

The bidding companies include the US’ FosterWheeler, Australia’s WorleyParsons, Italy’s Saipem and France’s Technip.

QP issued the tender for the project, known as the Qatar Defence project, in August last year, having restarted the project after shelving it in 2005. While QP is awarding the contract, the Defence Ministry is the ultimate client (MEED 19:08:10).

“The project has to primarily to do with border surveillance, then with oil and gas,” said a source at a bidding company.

The feasibility study and feed contractor will determine the exact location of the sensor platforms and whether they will interfere with helicopter routes and existing communication systems. It will also assess the provision of the sensors’ power and utility requirements, since the scheme includes living quarters for 120 personnel.

Four of the towers will cover the area to the northeast of Qatar, which includes the North Field, Al-Shaheen and the Al-Rayyan oil and gas fields.

The other four towers will cover fields around Halul Island to the east of Qatar, which are Idd el-Shargi, Bul Hanine, Maydan Mahzam and Al-Khaleej.