A Japanese team of Mitsui & Company, Marubeni Corporation and ItochuCorporation has already been selected to supply the pipeline which will connect a four-leg riser platform being built by the local Maritime Industrial Services to the mainland. The platform is scheduled for completion in June 2005 with the pipelines due to be ready by September.

Onshore, six companies have been invited to bid by early December for the construction of the 30-inch diameter, 30-kilometre pipeline, which will tie in with the Sajaa plant being built by Sharjah-based Petrofac International.

Petrofac is acting as the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contractor. The contract includes construction of two trains, each with capacity of 300 million cubic feet a day (cf/d) of gas; a 350-tonne-a-day sulphur recovery unit; granulation and storage units; and associated facilities.

Petrofac completed the front-end engineering and design (FEED) studies for the onshore scheme. Australia's Worleycarried out detailed designs for the construction of the offshore platform, pipeline and related facilities.

SajGas is a joint venture between the Sharjah government, the local Crescent Petroleum Companyand six GCC investors.

The Sajaa facility will process gas from the Mubarak field and up to 350 million cf/d of gas from Iran's offshore Salman field. Gas is expected to begin flowing by the final quarter of 2005. Crescent signed a deal last year with National Iranian Gas Export Company (NIGEC)for the delivery of Salman gas (MEED 14:5:04).