Date: 12 Mar 2000
Time: 18:04:18
Remote Name: 24.30.137.96
03/10/2000 Middle East Economic Digest Copyright (C) 2000 Middle East Economic Digest; Source: World Reporter (TM)
The Royal Dutch/Shell Group has awarded the front end engineering and design (FEED) contract for the offshore Soroush and Nowruz oil fields and will issue the first of four tender packages for the $850 million project in mid-year. Shell's affiliate Shell Exploration was awarded the contract to develop the two fields jointly in November (MEED 26:11:99).
The Hague office of ABB Lummus Global signed a contract with Shell on 10 January for the FEED package, against competition from the Anglo-Norwegian group Kvaerner Process, Technip of France and other European engineering firms.
Shell has also awarded several smaller contracts, such as for 3-D seismic data acquisition to Compagnie General de Geophysique of France, for a geotechnical survey to Fugro Engineering of the Netherlands, for turret mooring engineering to London Marine Consultants, for purchase of the tanker Lanistes (for subsequent conversion as a storage and unloading facility) to Stasco of the UK, and for an environmental impact assessment to the local Environmental & Industries Engineering (ENI).
Contracts will soon be awarded for drilling rigs, casing and tubing, as well as wellhead and Xmas trees, a Shell source says.
"Tenders for the major engineering aspects will be invited in the third quarter of the year," the source says. Shell's apparently rapid progress contrasts with delays on some other oil schemes awarded by the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) in 1999 (MEED 3:3:00).
Sources in the companies planning to participate in the tenders say prequalification bids, described by Shell as "registration of interest", were submitted on 28 February. The tenders are expected to be in four packages, starting with an "early production capability" package which could be out in May.
Shell is believed to want to award the first package by August so as to meet its schedule of first early oil in late 2001. The other three packages, including a big platform for Nowruz, will be tendered in late 2000 for awards in 2001.
The list of prospective bidders includes Kvaerner, Technip, ABB Lummus Global, South Korea's Hyundai Group, Sembawang of Singapore and National Petroleum Construction Company (NPCC) of Abu Dhabi. Saipem of Italy and Serimer of France may also be involved, industry sources say.
The bidders will be teaming up with local companies, such as state-owned heavyweights Sadra and Iran Marine Industries Company. The latter has worked with Technip in the past, while Sadra has been associated with the South Koreans.
Reserves to be developed at Soroush are estimated at about 500 million barrels of heavy crude, and at Nowruz at an estimated 550 million barrels. Soroush is to produce 100,000 barrels a day (b/d), while Nowruz will produce 90,000 b/d. Early production from Soroush is to begin in the autumn of 2001 and full production is due to begin from both fields two years later.