Monday, Jul 13, 2009
Gulf News
Abu Dhabi: Pakistan's Descon Engineering has secured a $100 million sub-contract from Germany's Linde Group for the construction of one of the two large air separation units (ASUs) being built at Mirfa in Abu Dhabi, a senior Descon executive said on Sunday.
Elixier, a joint venture of the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (Adnoc) and Linde, is building the Mirfa project. The first ASU, comprising two trains, is expected to cost about $1 billion.
"We have been awarded two trains out of the four trains being built after a competitive bidding process," said Malek Khalid Yaqoub, marketing manager for Descon. He said Descon will carry out the civil and mechanical works of ASU Mirfa 1 Project in Abu Dhabi.
"The decision on the remaining two trains will be taken later this year. We propose to bid for those projects as well," Yaqoub added.
"Work on the project awarded is scheduled to start this month and will be completed in the first quarter of 2011," Shaikh Azhar Ali, managing director and chief executive officer of Descon told reporters last week.
The new plants will be connected to the utility and pipeline network and will supply nitrogen for injection into the onshore condensate field in Habshan in Abu Dhabi to free natural gas for the national grid. The two air separation plants will have a total nitrogen capacity of 670,000 standard cubic metres per hour.
Ali said Descon's order book in the UAE is currently $600 million. Descon's projects here include the Fertil urea debottlenecking project on an engineering, procurement and construction basis, OAG project on Das Island, Asab Gas Development Phase II and Descon Borouge II.
Descon operates in Abu Dhabi, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Pakistan.
The company provides EPC and manufacturing and maintenance services to the oil and natural gas industry as well as to the power, fertiliser, water and desalination, cement and alternate energy industries.
By Himendra Mohan Kumar, Staff Reporter
Gulf News 2009. All rights reserved.
