The UAE’s Shah gas project is expected to be operational early 2015, head of Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) has announced
Abu Dhabi energy officials had earlier said that the US$10bn project to produce usable gas from Shah’s high-sulphur reserves would be completed in late 2014.
However, ADNOC is on target to boost oil output as part of plans to reach a production capacity of 3.5mn bpd by 2017, sources said.
Abdulla Nasser Al Suwaidi, chief executive of ADNOC, said that the multi-billion dollar project with US-based Occidental Petroleum Corporation (Oxy) was likely to come onstream next year.
“There is normal progress, the start up and coming (online) time for such a plant takes time,” Al Suwaidi said.
The plan to process around 28.3mn cubic metres per day of sour gas into 14.1mn cubic metres of usable gas is said to be vital for keeping the UAE supplied with fuel and reducing its growing gas imports.
ADNOC holds a 60 per cent share in the joint venture, while Oxy holds the remaining 40 per cent. Italy’s Saipem has been awarded the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contracts for the gas processing plant, sulphur recovery unit, and nearly 250km of related pipelines.
Another EPC for the gas gathering pipelines was awarded to a joint venture of Spain’s Tecnicas Reunidas and India’s Punj Lloyd.
