Estimated to cost $150 million, the scheme will entail the drilling of new production wells, reinjection of gas and water to maintain reservoir pressure and installation of submersible pumps.

The UAD field is located about 30 kilometres northwest off Abu Dhabi island and has several remote production and water injection wellhead platforms and a central production platform complex.

UAD is the second full-field development project planned by Zadco. Awards are due for the front-end engineering and design (FEED) and project manager package on the Satah field. Estimated to be worth $200 million-250 million, the scheme centres on the supply and installation of gas injection compressors and pipelines. The project is aimed at the reinjection of 10 million cubic feet a day of associated gas to maintain reservoir pressure at the offshore field. At present, Satah has production capacity of about 25,000 b/d.

Abu Dhabi Company for Onshore Oil Operations (Adco) is also stepping upefforts to increase production capacity from onshore fields. It is carrying out a screen study covering the phase 2 expansion of Bab. The project, for which basic engineering and design is due to start in mid-2006, will look at increasing production capacity by an additional 100,000 b/d.

In March, Japan's JGC Corporation completed work on the estimated AED 334 million ($91 million) engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract for the phase 1 works. The Bab field has design capacity to produce 150,000 b/d, although the sustainable level is 100,000 b/d.