The project management tender has been issued on the trans-emirates oil pipeline scheme running from Habshan, the centre of the onshore Abu Dhabi oil industry, to Fujairah on the east coast of the federation.

The strategic project will see the construction of a 360-kilometre-long pipeline able to handle 1.5 million barrels a day of crude, and a 1 million-barrel storage terminal at Fujairah. The pipeline will provide the first direct outlet for Abu Dhabi crude outside the Gulf. At present, onshore crude is exported by pipeline to the Jebel Dhanna oil terminal in western Abu Dhabi, from where it is shipped out of the Gulf.

Abu Dhabi-based International Petroleum Investment Company (IPIC) has invited selected firms to submit bids by 26 February for the project management contract. The invitees include the UK's Mott MacDonald, Tebodin of the Netherlands, Paris-based Technip, the US/Canadian VECO and Australia's WorleyParsons.

The successful bidder will oversee the front-end engineering and design and the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) packages, which will be awarded separately (MEED 3:11:06).

IPIC has already entered into negotiations with China Petroleum Engineering Construction Corporation about carrying out the EPC pipeline package (MEED 2:2:07).