Abu Dhabi Gas Industries (Gasco), a subsidiary of Abu Dhabi National Oil Company has sent letters of award to Italy’s Techint and India’s Dodsal for two schemes worth an estimated $1.2bn to build new sulphur forming, handling and export facilities in the Western region.  

The first deal, worth an estimated $624m goes to Techint and the local Al-Jaber Group to build a new sulphur handling and export terminal at Ruwais, 240 kilometres from Abu Dhabi. The group beat rival proposals from four other firms in a 4 October bid round (MEED 15:10:10).

The five bidding firms were:

• Techint with Al-Jaber Group ($624m)
• Siapem ($812m)
• India’s Dodsal ($828)
• South Korea’s Hyundai Engineering & Construction ($847m)
• India’s Punj Lloyd ($852m)

The contract covers the construction of a new sulphur handling and export terminal at the port of Ruwais in the Western region of the emirate. It will include loading and storage facilities that will bring the port’s total sulphur capacity up to 20,000 tonnes a day (t/d).

The second contract, awarded to Dodsal covers new sulphur handling and processing facility at Habshan in the southwest of the emirate. Sources close to the project estimate it to be worth about $500m. At least nine firms submitted bids on 21 September, including Punj Lloyd, Saipem and South Korea’s GS Engineering & Construction (MEED 26:11:10).

The facility will be used to form and granulate 10,000 t/d of sulphur extracted from natural gas at Adnoc’s existing gas production facilities and its new integrated gas development.

Nine engineering firms submitted technical bids for a final deal for facilities at the Shah gas field on 5 December. Gasco has set technical clarification meetings for between 9 and 21 January before commercial submission in February or March, according to bidding firms.

Adnoc plans to build an estimated $2bn worth of new sulphur handling and distribution facilities as it develops its sour gas resources. Production is expected to rise to 7 million t/y by 2015 from about 1.7 million t/y in 2008.