Chinese contractor breaks ground on $4bln QatarEnergy offshore project

Summary

• China National Offshore Oil Engineering began work on the $4bln Bul Hanine offshore project in Qatar.
• The scope covers over 60 standalone offshore facilities and 40 subsea pipelines and cables.
• It is the Chinese contractor's largest international offshore project to date, by contract value.

The latest

Groundbreaking has started on a $4 billion offshore engineering package at QatarEnergy's Bul Hanine oilfield, China National Offshore Oil Engineering (COOEC) announced. The company described it as its biggest international offshore project, delivered under a single integrated EPIC contract covering engineering, procurement, installation and commissioning. Construction spans more than 60 standalone offshore facilities, according to the announcement.

Details

• The contract: COOEC said the Bul Hanine EPIC contract carries a total value of $4 billion, the largest international offshore award in the Chinese contractor's portfolio. The integrated scope runs across engineering, procurement, fabrication, transportation, offshore installation and commissioning, placing the full delivery chain with a single contractor rather than splitting it among specialist firms.
• The build: The project involves constructing more than 60 standalone offshore oil and gas facilities and 40 subsea pipelines and cables, according to the announcement. Alongside the new-build element, the contractor will modify platforms that remain in service and decommission and remove obsolete platforms at the field.
• The scale: COOEC said the work will require over 130,000 tonnes of steel across the design, procurement, construction, transportation, installation and commissioning chain. No completion date or phased delivery schedule was disclosed in the groundbreaking announcement.
• The operator: The field is being developed by QatarEnergy, the state energy company, at the Bul Hanine oilfield offshore Qatar. The announcement did not detail QatarEnergy's own production targets for the redevelopment or name other contractors working on the wider field programme.
• The method: The project team has set up what COOEC called a full-cycle integrated management and control mechanism, with dedicated plans for process interfaces, risk isolation and resource allocation. The team will deploy 3D digital modelling and full-process engineering simulation technologies across the works.
• The track record: COOEC said it has secured over 170 overseas projects in recent years as it expands in the international high-end offshore energy engineering market. It cited Canada LNG, the Penguins FPSO and Saudi Arabia's Marjan project among the landmark deliveries it has completed.
• The Gulf angle: Bul Hanine adds a second major Gulf reference to COOEC's portfolio after Marjan in Saudi Arabia, both awarded by state-owned national oil companies. The company did not disclose the size of its Qatari workforce or the share of fabrication to be carried out at yards in China.

Background

Bul Hanine is one of Qatar's older producing offshore oilfields. The presence of in-service platform modifications and obsolete platform removals in the same contract indicates a redevelopment of existing infrastructure rather than a greenfield build.

Between the lines

The combination of new-build facilities, modifications to operating platforms and decommissioning within one $4 billion award points to a field being rebuilt while still producing — the sequencing risk the contractor's risk-isolation and process-interface plans are designed to manage. Awarding the entire chain to a single contractor concentrates that execution risk with COOEC rather than the operator.

What's next

Watch for QatarEnergy to set out production targets and a completion timeline for the Bul Hanine redevelopment, and for COOEC to disclose fabrication yard allocations and first steel-cutting milestones on the 130,000-tonne programme.

Source: TradeArabia via Zawya