J. Ray McDermott M.E. has won an engineering, procurement, construction and installation (EPCI) contract from Qatar Petroleum to develop a new offshore well-head platform and associated pipelines for the Maydan Mahzam fields.

Its Jebel Ali operations will handle project management, design engineering, procurement, fabrication, installation, hook-up and mechanical completion of the offshore facilities. Front-end and design engineering will be done by local engineering firms. Detailing will be done at J. Ray McDermott's Jebel Ali facility.

"The project's scope again demonstrates our capabilities as a full EPCI contractor, allowing us to provide our customers with the advantage of uniform safety and quality programmes as well as savings in cost and time," said Kurt Nelson, vice-president and general manager responsible for Eastern Hemisphere operations.

Work on well-head jacket and deck will begin at the yard in mid-August, and offshore installation work is scheduled for December 2001 and January 2002. A second mobilisation will take place following drilling in mid-2002 to ensure mechanical completion by end-August.

It will fabricate a four-leg jacket and topsides weighing 950 tonnes. The pipeline scope will comprise two new lines — a six-inch LP bulk flowline and an eight-inch gas lift pipeline between existing facilities and three spur lines to subsea tie-ins.

This is the second EPCI contract within a month that McDermott has won for offshore Qatari fields. The Ras Laffan Liquefied Natural Gas Co chose the company to build onshore facilities, including part of a new third LNG train for Qatar's North Field.