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Adnoc approaches decision on Umm Shaif gas cap project

21 May 2026

 

The offshore oil and gas business of Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (Adnoc Offshore) has entered the decision-making period on a project to increase gas and condensate production from the Umm Shaif hydrocarbons field.

The primary objective of Adnoc Offshore’s Umm Shaif gas cap and surface pressure boosting project is to increase gas production by 550 million cubic feet a day (cf/d) and raise associated condensate output by 50,000 barrels a day (b/d).

Adnoc Offshore intends to feed about 520 million cf/d of the additional produced gas volumes into the sales gas grid of its parent company, Adnoc Group.

Adnoc Offshore has divided the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) scope of the project’s first phase into three packages. Upon evaluation of technical and commercial bids for the project, the contractors that are understood to be in the lead for the two offshore packages and one onshore package, along with their basic scope of work, are as follows:

  • Offshore package 1 – fabrication of a 30,000-tonne gas compression system: Larsen & Toubro Energy Hydrocarbon (India) / Lamprell (Saudi Arabia/UAE)
  • Offshore package 2 – fabrication of a 30,000-tonne gas compression system: NMDC Energy (UAE) / Hyundai Heavy Industries (South Korea)
  • Onshore package – EPC of gas inlet and processing systems on Das Island: China Petroleum Engineering & Construction Company (CPECC)

Negotiations and discussions between Adnoc Offshore and the contractors are continuing, with the client expected to award the EPC contracts within the second quarter, sources told MEED.

Contractors submitted technical bids for the three EPC packages of the Umm Shaif gas cap and surface pressure boosting project by the deadline of 30 October last year, while commercial bids were submitted by the deadline of 2 February, according to sources.

The following contractors are among those that are understood to be bidding for the three EPC packages of the project:

Offshore package 1:

  • Saipem (Italy) / Seatrium (Singapore)
  • Larsen & Toubro Energy Hydrocarbon (India) / Lamprell (Saudi Arabia/UAE)
  • NMDC Energy (UAE) / Hyundai Heavy Industries (South Korea)

Offshore package 2:

  • China Offshore Oil Engineering Company (COOEC)
  • McDermott (US)
  • Larsen & Toubro Energy Hydrocarbon (India) / Lamprell (Saudi Arabia/UAE)
  • NMDC Energy (UAE) / Hyundai Heavy Industries (South Korea)

Onshore package:

  • Archirodon (Greece)
  • China Petroleum Engineering & Construction Company (CPECC)
  • Engineering for the Petroleum & Process Industries (Enppi; Egypt)
  • Galfar Emirates (UAE branch of Oman’s Galfar Engineering & Construction)
  • Target Engineering Construction Company (UAE)

Adnoc Offshore is understood to have issued the main EPC tender for the Umm Shaif gas cap and surface pressure boosting project in the first quarter of 2025.

Australian firm Worley has performed front-end engineering and design (feed) work on the project.

Umm Shaif gas production

Adnoc Offshore operates the Umm Shaif hydrocarbons development, which is located 150 kilometres (km) northwest of the city of Abu Dhabi. The field is located in Abu Dhabi’s offshore Umm Shaif and Nasr hydrocarbons concession, previously operated by former Adnoc Group companies Adma-Opco and Zadco.

In March and April 2018, Adnoc awarded a 10% stake in the Umm Shaif and Nasr offshore block to Italy’s Eni, 20% to France’s TotalEnergies and 10% to China National Petroleum Corporation. Adnoc Group retained the majority 60% interest. The operators produce a total of about 460,000 b/d of oil from the Umm Shaif and Nasr block.

Gas is produced from the Umm Shaif Khuff and Uweinat reservoirs, as well as from the Arab C and Arab D Early Production Scheme 2. The Umm Shaif Khuff reservoir is a formation that consists of dry gas volumetric reservoirs located in the Umm Shaif field.

Khuff reservoirs have been in production in Abu Dhabi since August 1989. Umm Shaif Khuff gas is currently produced from 28 active wells within the Umm Shaif field. A majority of these wells supply gas to Adnoc Group subsidiaries Adnoc LNG and Adnoc Gas Processing, with the rest supporting oil reservoirs at the Umm Shaif field through gas injection.

The Umm Shaif Super Complex (USSC) processes and transports oil, condensates and natural gas in separate pipelines to Das Island for further processing and export. The condensates collected from the USSC are transported to Das Island through an 18-inch pipeline stretching 34.4km, or are spiked into the 36-inch Adnoc main oil line.

The gas collected from the USSC is transported to Das Island through two 46-inch pipelines, which also run 34.4km.

Pressure at the Umm Shaif Khuff gas reservoirs will start to decline by the end of 2028. The flowing wellhead pressures at some of the Khuff gas wellhead towers are likely to reduce, so boosting well deliverability and increasing the flowrates is necessary.

Therefore, new Khuff surface pressure boosting facilities are required to maintain the plateau – with a goal of achieving a 90% gas recovery factor – and increase production beyond the end of the plateau by lowering pressure at the Khuff reservoirs.

Project tendering exercise

Adnoc Offshore has been working to advance the Umm Shaif gas cap project since at least 2019 and has experimented with several project execution models.

According to the original schedule, the project was due to be commissioned in 2023, but progress slowed down, primarily due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Adnoc Offshore launched a feed-to-engineering, procurement, construction and installation (EPCI) competition for the project in May 2019 and selected the following three entities based on their feed submissions:

  • McDermott (US)
  • National Petroleum Construction Company (UAE; now NMDC Energy) / TechnipFMC (France)
  • Saipem (Italy) / Petrofac (UK)

Technical bids for the EPCI works on the estimated $1.5bn project were submitted in January 2020 and commercial bids were submitted by August of that year.

The Saipem/Petrofac consortium emerged as the lowest bidder for the project in September 2020, MEED reported.

Petrofac is understood to have ultimately withdrawn from the consortium and was replaced by state-owned CPECC.

In 2022, the Saipem/CPECC consortium was understood to be the sole remaining bidder for the Umm Shaif gas cap project. Adnoc Offshore engaged the consortium for a revised feed exercise, and went on to receive commercial offers on a single-source basis.

In 2023, Adnoc Offshore cancelled the tendering process for the project and later decided to proceed with a conventional EPC-based project execution model.

The operator then appointed Worley to undertake feed works on the renewed Umm Shaif gas cap project in 2024. Worley has a legacy of involvement in the Umm Shaif hydrocarbons development.

MEED’s May 2026 report on the UAE includes:

> COMMENT: Conflict tests UAE diversification
> GVT &: ECONOMY: UAE economy absorbs multi-sector shock
> BANKING: UAE banks ready to weather the storm
> ATTACKS: UAE counts energy infrastructure costs
> UPSTREAM: Adnoc builds long-term oil and gas production potential
> DOWNSTREAM: Adnoc Gas to rally UAE downstream project spending
> POWER: Large-scale IPPs drive UAE power market
> WATER: UAE water investment broadens beyond desalination
> CONSTRUCTION: War casts shadow over UAE construction boom
> TRANSPORT: UAE rail momentum grows as trade routes face strain

To see previous issues of MEED Business Review, please click here
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Indrajit Sen

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