The local Toledo Contracting has won a contract to upgrade the Abu Dhabi Gas Industries (Gasco) gas plant at the Bab field in Abu Dhabi.

The debottlenecking project, valued at about $50m, will bolster the sour gas plant’s capacity to filter hydrogen sulphide content in the associated gas from crude production. The hydrogen sulphide will be sent to Habshan 5 process plant, currently under construction, to feed into sulphur production at the site.

“Now the system in Bab is working almost to the design limits, which is not to be recommended from a safety point of view,” says a source close to the project. Hydrogen sulphide is highly explosive if mixed with air.

The scope of the project involves the installation of equipment such as heat exchangers, pumps, associated piping and electrical instrumentation work.

The project is now in the engineering stage. Toledo have subcontracted the engineering works to UK-based Penspen International. Construction work is expected to commence in the third quarter of 2011.

Australian WorleyParsons is undertaking the project management and consultancy work, while US-based Veco Engineering will carry out the front end engineering and design (feed) work.