Dubai: Abu Dhabi Marine Operating Company (Adma-Opco), a subsidiary of Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (Adnoc), said, it has signed two engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contracts valued at around Dh8.8 billion ($2.4 billion) for the development of Satah Al Razboot (SARB) oil field with South Korean contractor Hyundai Engineering and Construction Company (HDEC) and Petrofac International, Abu Dhabi.

Abu Dhabi government is investing Dh260 billion in boosting oil production capacity from 2.8 million barrels per day to 3.5 million bpd by 2017. SARB is a strategic initiative of Adnoc to boost oil production plans and forms part of Abu Dhabi’s broader development strategy, the company said.

“SARB development is a part of the critical push from Abu Dhabi’s side to ramp up the production by nearly 35 per cent to 3.5 million barrels per day. The project is significant considering that this is part of the Emirate’s push to increase production from offshore developments, and the usage of artificial islands instead of the conventional wellhead tower approach,” Abhay Bhargava, Head, Energy and Power Systems Practice at research consultancy Frost and Sullivan, told Gulf News.

The project is part of the overall scheme of Adma-Opco to add 300,000 barrels a day (b/d) of additional production from its new offshore fields, with about 100,000 b/d coming from SARB oilfield to be developed through seven packages.

“When completed in April 2017, SARB will be the first offshore digital intelligent oil field development with a state-of-the-art technology in automated facility in the UAE. The modular construction, energy efficiency and environmental compliance are major cornerstones of the project design,” a company statement said.

Bhargava said, “It is also commendable that Abu Dhabi Marine Operating Company (Adma-Opco) is pioneering the usage of digital oil-field solutions on this project, and that they are maintaining a focus on efficiency for the same.”

For the full development of SARB oilfield, Adma-Opco has selected the construction of two artificial falcon-shaped islands, SARB-1 and SARB-2 that are currently under construction by Adnoc about 120 kilometres to the northwest coast of Abu Dhabi.

“SARB is one of Adnoc’s sole-risk projects that are playing a key role in Abu Dhabi’s efforts to increase its crude production capacity,” Qasem Musallam Al Kayoumi, Manager, Offshore Division, Exploration and Production Directorate of ADNOC, said.

Among several other packages, the onshore package No. 4 has been awarded to HDEC for $1.89 billion, while the offshore package No. 3 has been awarded to Petrofac International for $515.4 million.

“The onshore facilities EPC work undertaken by Hyundai EC covers processing, storage and export facilities on Zirku Island and wellhead facilities on two Artificial Islands,” Ali Rashed Al Jarwan, CEO of Adma-Opco, said in a statement.

“The offshore works undertaken by Petrofac mainly include around 200 kilometres of subsea pipelines, 55km of subsea cables, a Single Point Mooring Crude Loading Facility, four offshore flares and two riser platforms in addition to drilling utilities on the artificial islands.”

Yves Inbona, Managing Director of Petrofac’s Offshore Capital Projects (OCP) business, said: “This award is further confirmation of the increased demand we see for Petrofac to broaden its market leading EPC capability offshore.”

The addition of $1.9 billion contract takes Hyundai’s total orderbook to $5 billion in the UAE, a company source said.

Soo Hyun Jung, President & CEO of HDEC, who signed the contract on Monday, told the company’s shareholders last month, the company consolidated its lead last year by obtaining orders of 15.6227 trillion won and sales of 10.4334 trillion won amid the recession in the global economy and ever volatile business environments.