Italy’s Saipem has won the pre-construction package for the offshore site protection project in Qatar.

The contractor will undertake a feasibility study and the front-end engineering and design (feed) work for construction of eight platforms built near Qatar’s offshore oil and gas production sites.

Qatar Petroleum (QP) issued the tender for the project, known as the Qatar Defence project, in August 2010, having restarted the project after shelving it in 2005 (MEED 19:08:10).

QP is tendering the project on behalf of the Interior Ministry. The project will protect Qatar’s offshore installations and increase border security.

Saipem beat the US’ FosterWheeler, Australia’s WorleyParsons and France’s Technip to win the contract after lengthy tender stage that saw some of the bidders resubmit commercial bids twice.

The company held the kick-off meeting with QP on 12 July, according to a source close to the project.

As part of its work, Saipem 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.

The sensor tower platforms will contain an array of surveillance systems, including: radar, direction finders, electro-optical cameras, automatic identifier systems, weather stations, maritime radio transmitters and wide area network antennas.

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 sHanine, Maydan Mahzam and Al-Khaleej.