Zakum Development Company (Zadco) has issued an invitation to tender (ITT) for the onshore portion of the Upper Zakum full field development, also known as UZ750.

Eleven contractors have been invited to bid for the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract, called EPC2. 

The deadline for technical bids has been set for late December, while commercial bids will be submitted in mid-April 2012, according to a source close to the project.

EPC2 will be build on four artificial islands, which are currently under construction. The project is behind schedule and further delays could have a knock-on effect for the onshore tender.

Three of the islands will be 0.65 kilometre x 0.45km satellites, anchored by a 1.2km x 0.6km main island. The main island will accommodate up to 400 wells, while the smaller islands will each have slots for up to 200 wells.

The contractors are:

• Technip (France) and NPCC (local)
• Saipem (Italy) and Tecnicas Reunidas (Spain)
• Petrofac (local) and Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering (South Korea)
• Samsung (South Korea) and Sinopec (China)
• Hyundai Heavy Industries (South Korea) and KBR (US)
• JGC (Japan)

The construction of the artificial islands is experiencing delay, says a source, giving rise to speculation that the EPC2 work will be impacted.

“It will be a huge headache [for the contractors] if they keep falling further behind,” says the source. “It pushes everything back and they will miss their first oil dates if it slips much more.”

Further delays are likely to occur said the source:  “Projects don’t usually turn themselves around half way in. If you don’t do it right at the beginning, you’re on a slippery slope.”

The EPC1 tender covers the offshore portion of the full field development as well as first oil facilities on the islands. J Ray McDermott, NPCC, Saipem and Technip have submitted technical bids and have been told by Zadco that the deadline for commercial bids will be set for mid-December.

With the Upper Zakum full field development, Zadco aims to increase production in  Zakum from 500,000 barrels day (b/d) to 750,000 b/d in 2015.