Abu Dhabi awards $9.2 bn gas deal to foreign firms

DUBAI: State-run Abu Dhabi Gas Industries Ltd (GASCO) has awarded contracts worth 9.2 billion dollars to international firms to set up intergrated gas systems projects, the company said on Wednesday.

The contracts are for "engineering, procurement, construction and commissioning (EPC) works for integrated gas systems projects" at the Ruwais and Habshan gas plants, a statement on the official WAM news agency said.

Eighteen companies competed for the contracts.

Companies which won include a consortium of Japan's JGC and Italy's Tecnimont, Hyundai Engineering and Construction, the US company CBI and a consortium of Petrofac and Korea's GS Construction and Engineering.

The UAE, which is an OPEC member, holds the world's fifth-largest gas reserves, but a sizable portion of it is sour gas with a high concentration of sulphur, experts have said.

Need for natural gas in the booming seven-member federation UAE is forecast to grow rapidly to about six billion cubic feet daily by 2020 and most of it will be used for power generation and water desalination plants.

Projects announced by GASCO include a gas treatment plant at the Habshan Gas Complex, as well as a "LNG fractionation train at the Ruwais Plant and storage tanks for propane, butane and pentane products."

GASCO, a subsidiary of the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company, said that the projects were due to be completed by "the third quarter of 2013."