The approval followed the completion of technical and financial clarification meetings in mid-October with the four bidders. Besides WorleyParsons, three other companies priced the contract - the UK's Mott MacDonald, Tebodin Middle East, part of Tebodin of the Netherlands, and Switzerland-based Electrowatt Engineering Services.

About $45 million is planned for investment in the construction of the platform, subsea pipelines and power cables. The FEED package will take about six months to complete, to be followed by four months of detailed engineering and design. The next stage in project implementation will be the issue of an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) tender. WorleyParsons will also provide project management consultancy (PMC) services for the EPC phase, which will take about 14 months.

The client is the recently-formed Indago Oman, part of the UK's Indago, which bought the shares of the previous operator, Novus Oman, for an undisclosed amount. Indago Oman and its partners in Bukha - South Korea's LG International, Canada's Heritage Oil Corporationand the government of Oman - had originally planned to drill an exploratory well at the field by year-end. However, due to global rig shortages and price escalations, spudding is expected in early 2006. Indago plans to supply gas to neighbouring Ras al-Khaimah in the UAE, with the first flush due in 2007.