US oil and gas engineering firm McDermott International has secured a detailed design contract for offshore jackets that will be installed at the North Field expansion project.

The work is part of a larger offshore scheme that consists of six wellhead platforms, jackets and associated intra-field and main trunk lines to shore, to deliver 4.6 billion standard cubic feet a day of gas from the North Field, the largest non-associated gas field in the world.

The main engineering, procurement, construction and installation (EPCI) contract is expected to be awarded by the end of this year ahead a drilling campaign that is planned to start in 2019.

The front-end engineering and design contract for the onshore part of the project was recently awarded to Japan’s Chiyoda.

The offshore facilities will be integrated with the three new 7.8 million tonnes per annum (mtpa) mega liquefied natural gas (LNG) trains, which are set to be brought online to increase Qatar’s LNG output from 77 mtpa to 100 mtpa.

With a targeted capacity of 4.6 billion cubic feet per day, the North Field expansion project will add about one million barrels per day of oil equivalent to total production.

The project client is Qatargas, which is a subsidiary of state-owned Qatar Petroleum.