Thursday, Jan 13, 2011
(This item was originally published Wednesday.)
DUBAI (Zawya Dow Jones)--Dodsal Engineering and Construction, the United Arab Emirates-based contractor, has won the $490 million contract to build sulfur granulation facilities for Abu Dhabi National Oil Co. as part of its $12 billion Shah sour gas field development, a company official said Wednesday.
"We were awarded the Habshan sulfur granulation (plant) earlier this month--it was about $480 million and $10 million for maintenance; it involves a granulator and pipeline in Habshan," the Dodsal official, who declined to be named due to company policy, said.
The engineering, procurement and construction contract was officially signed and awarded through Adnoc subsidiary Abu Dhabi Gas Industries Ltd., or Gasco. Dodsal is set to start work on the project on Jan. 15, with work expected to last up to 31 months, the official said.
The project is part of the Shah sour gas field development, which is essential to help Abu Dhabi meet gas demand in the emirate, which has surged as the government builds gas-fired power stations, desalination plants and develops industries such as petrochemicals. Abu Dhabi is the largest of seven emirates that make up the U.A.E.
The Shah project aims at producing 1 billion cubic feet a day of sour--or sulfur-rich--gas and stripping out the sulfur and transporting it to processing and export facilities. Sour gas is highly corrosive and more costly and challenging to process as it requires special handling and infrastructure. The toxic sulfur will be a byproduct from the sour gas development.
The new granulation plant, to be located about 16 kilometers southeast of the existing Habshan gas plant complex, will have capacity to process 11,000 tons a day of liquid sulfur recovered from the Shah and Habshan onshore gas fields located in Abu Dhabi emirate. Dodsal's contract also covers construction of storage for liquid sulfur and granulated sulfur among other facilities.
"This plant will be the largest granulator site built in the U.A.E. It will convert the liquid sulfur to granules and then these will be transported via railway to Ruwais," the official said. "It has been decided that the sulphur will be transported by rail from Union Railway."
The sour gas field development has faced delays partially due to the question over whether the sulfur will be transported to export facilities at Ruwais on the U.A.E.'s Persian Gulf coast via pipeline or railway.
State-run Union Railway is tasked with developing a 1,100-kilometer railway network across the oil-rich Gulf Arab state.
A spokeswoman for Union Railway confirmed the company's role in the Shah project. "Union Railway will provide a rail route for the transport of granulated sulfur," company spokeswoman Dalia Moujaes told Zawya Dow Jones in an emailed statement.
Adnoc and Gasco officials couldn't be reached for comment.
-By Tahani Karrar-Lewsley, Dow Jones Newswires; +9714 446-1692; Tahani.Karrar@dowjones.com
Copyright (c) 2011 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
13-01-11 0353GMT
