MEED previously reported that frontrunners had emerged for the two offshore and onshore packages of the Umm Shaif gas cap project, which Adnoc expects will feed up to 600 million cubic feet a day of gas into the Abu Dhabi grid by 2030
Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (Adnoc) and its foreign partners have announced a $6.2bn final investment decision (FID) for a major project to produce up to 600 million cubic feet a day (cf/d) of natural gas by developing the Umm Shaif Gas Cap in Abu Dhabi.
The Umm Shaif Gas Cap reserve is located within the offshore Umm Shaif and Nasr hydrocarbons concession, which is operated by Adnoc as the majority stakeholder. The other stakeholders in the concession are Italy’s Eni, France’s TotalEnergies and China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC).
Adnoc said the FID includes three engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) packages totalling $5.1bn for large-scale offshore infrastructure, awarded to consortiums comprising major UAE and international contractors. The company did not disclose the contractors or the scope of work.
MEED reported in May that the following contractors had emerged as frontrunners for the two offshore packages and one onshore package of the Umm Shaif gas cap and surface pressure boosting project:
- First offshore package – fabrication of a 30,000-tonne gas compression system: Larsen & Toubro Energy Hydrocarbon (India) / Lamprell (Saudi Arabia/UAE)
- Second offshore package – fabrication of another 30,000-tonne gas compression system: McDermott (US)
- Onshore package – EPC of gas inlet and processing systems on Das Island: China Petroleum Engineering & Construction Company (CPECC)
In its 21 July statement, Adnoc added that, as part of the FID, it has also awarded a $365m contract to its subsidiary Adnoc Drilling for a 14-well drilling and integrated drilling services scope, to be delivered over 18 months using three existing rigs.
“The FID for Umm Shaif Gas Cap is the latest milestone in the company’s gas growth strategy and will unlock more than 600 million standard cubic feet per day of natural gas and associated gas liquids, equivalent to almost 10% of the UAE’s current daily gas consumption. The investment will reinforce the UAE’s energy security and its role as a reliable global energy supplier,” Adnoc said.
Production from the development is expected by 2030, the Abu Dhabi energy giant said.
“The UAE holds the seventh-largest gas reserves in the world. As global demand for reliable, lower-carbon energy continues to grow, Adnoc is unlocking more of the nation’s gas resources and expanding its liquefied natural gas (LNG) portfolio to meet the needs of its domestic and international customers and power industrial and artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure growth,” it added.
Umm Shaif Gas Cap project
Adnoc Offshore, the offshore oil and gas business of Adnoc Group, is the operator of the Umm Shaif gas cap and surface pressure boosting project, MEED has reported.
The primary objective is to increase gas production by 550 million cubic feet a day (cf/d) and raise associated condensate output by 50,000 barrels a day (b/d).
Adnoc Offshore intends to feed about 520 million cf/d of the additional produced gas into Adnoc Group’s sales gas grid.
Adnoc Offshore is understood to have issued the main EPC tender for the Umm Shaif gas cap and surface pressure boosting project in the first quarter of 2025.
Contractors submitted technical bids for the three EPC packages by the 30 October deadline last year, while commercial bids were submitted by the 2 February deadline.
The following contractors are among those understood to be bidding for the three EPC packages, according to sources:
- Saipem (Italy) / Seatrium (Singapore)
- Larsen & Toubro Energy Hydrocarbon (India) / Lamprell (Saudi Arabia/UAE)
- NMDC Energy (UAE) / Hyundai Heavy Industries (South Korea)
Offshore package 2:
- China Offshore Oil Engineering Company (COOEC)
- McDermott (US)
- Larsen & Toubro Energy Hydrocarbon (India) / Lamprell (Saudi Arabia/UAE)
- NMDC Energy (UAE) / Hyundai Heavy Industries (South Korea)
Onshore package:
- Archirodon (Greece)
- China Petroleum Engineering & Construction Company (CPECC)
- Engineering for the Petroleum & Process Industries (Enppi; Egypt)
- Galfar Emirates (UAE branch of Oman’s Galfar Engineering & Construction)
- Target Engineering Construction Company (UAE)
Australian firm Worley has performed front-end engineering and design (feed) work on the project.
Umm Shaif gas production
Adnoc Offshore operates the Umm Shaif hydrocarbons development, which is located 150 kilometres (km) northwest of the city of Abu Dhabi. The field is located in Abu Dhabi’s offshore Umm Shaif and Nasr hydrocarbons concession, previously operated by former Adnoc Group companies Adma-Opco and Zadco.
In March and April 2018Abu Dhabi’s Supreme Council for Financial and Economic Affairs (SCFEA) awarded a 10% stake in the Umm Shaif and Nasr offshore block to Eni, 20% to TotalEnergies and 10% to CNPC. Adnoc Group retained the majority 60% interest. The operators produce a total of about 460,000 b/d of oil from the Umm Shaif and Nasr block.
Gas is produced from the Umm Shaif Khuff and Uweinat reservoirs, as well as from the Arab C and Arab D Early Production Scheme 2. The Umm Shaif Khuff reservoir is a formation that consists of dry gas volumetric reservoirs located in the Umm Shaif field.
Khuff reservoirs have been in production in Abu Dhabi since August 1989. Umm Shaif Khuff gas is currently produced from 28 active wells within the Umm Shaif field. A majority of these wells supply gas to Adnoc Group subsidiaries Adnoc LNG and Adnoc Gas Processing, with the rest supporting oil reservoirs at the Umm Shaif field through gas injection.
The Umm Shaif Super Complex (USSC) processes and transports oil, condensates and natural gas in separate pipelines to Das Island for further processing and export. The condensates collected from the USSC are transported to Das Island through an 18-inch pipeline stretching 34.4km, or are spiked into the 36-inch Adnoc main oil line.
The gas collected from the USSC is transported to Das Island through two 46-inch pipelines, which also run 34.4km.
Pressure at the Umm Shaif Khuff gas reservoirs will start to decline by the end of 2028. The flowing wellhead pressures at some of the Khuff gas wellhead towers are likely to reduce, so boosting well deliverability and increasing the flowrates is necessary.
Therefore, new Khuff surface pressure boosting facilities are required to maintain the plateau – with a goal of achieving a 90% gas recovery factor – and increase production beyond the end of the plateau by lowering pressure at the Khuff reservoirs.
Project tendering exercise
Adnoc Offshore has been working to advance the Umm Shaif gas cap project since at least 2019 and has experimented with several project execution models.
According to the original schedule, the project was due to be commissioned in 2023, but progress slowed down, primarily due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Adnoc Offshore launched a feed-to-engineering, procurement, construction and installation (EPCI) competition for the project in May 2019 and selected the following three entities based on their feed submissions:
- McDermott (US)
- National Petroleum Construction Company (UAE; now NMDC Energy) / TechnipFMC (France)
- Saipem (Italy) / Petrofac (UK)
Technical bids for the EPCI works on the estimated $1.5bn project were submitted in January 2020 and commercial bids were submitted by August of that year.
The Saipem/Petrofac consortium emerged as the lowest bidder for the project in September 2020, MEED reported.
Petrofac is understood to have ultimately withdrawn from the consortium and was replaced by state-owned CPECC.
In 2022, the Saipem/CPECC consortium was understood to be the sole remaining bidder for the Umm Shaif gas cap project. Adnoc Offshore engaged the consortium for a revised feed exercise and subsequently received commercial offers on a single-source basis.
In 2023, Adnoc Offshore cancelled the tendering process for the project and later decided to proceed with a conventional EPC-based project execution model.
The operator then appointed Worley to undertake feed works on the renewed Umm Shaif gas cap project in 2024. Worley has a legacy of involvement in the Umm Shaif hydrocarbons development.
