The study, aimed at increasing production to 750,000 barrels a day (b/d) from 550,000 b/d, will look at wellhead platforms, subsea pipelines and the four main crude oil processing trains on the island. It will also entail debottlenecking of the processing units on Zirku. An initial study of the project has been carried out by Tebodin.

The four-phase contract will involve: identifying the hazardous operations of the existing oil, gas and water separation facilities and the bottlenecks; proposing modifications to increase output; and carrying out detailed engineering for the proposed project.

Zadco - operator of the three offshore oil fields of Upper Zakum, Umm al-Dalkh and Satah - is working on four new major projects. They are:

Upper Zakum producing water facilities project, for which VECO is due to complete soon the conceptual study. The project is aimed at handling increasing water production at the oil field and will look at ways of separating, treating and disposing of water produced at the three offshore platforms and transporting it to an onshore treatment facility;

Satah full-field development scheme, for which a selection is awaited for the contract to carry out the front-end engineering and design (FEED) package. The scheme is aimed at the reinjection of 10 million cubic feet a day of gas to maintain pressure and will include the installation of a gas treatment unit and separators;

Umm al-Dalkh field development scheme, for which a tender is due to be issued soon for the conceptual design study contract. The estimated $150 million full-field development project is aimed at increasing production capacity to 20,000 b/d from 13,000 b/d, through enhanced oil recovery (EOR) techniques; and

Fabrication and installation of gas injection topsides, for which companies are due to submit technical bids by mid-September for the FEED contract. The project is aimed at the reinjection of additional volumes of gas into the oil reservoir to maintain pressure.