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Adnoc awards Abu Dhabi airport tank farm project

10 July 2024

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Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (Adnoc) has awarded the main engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract for a major project to build aviation fuel tank farms for Abu Dhabi International airport.

A consortium of Abu Dhabi-headquartered Trojan Construction Group and Dubai-based Cylingas has been selected for the project’s main EPC contract, which is estimated to be worth up to $400m.

MEED reported in June that Adnoc had notified the Trojan/Cylingas consortium about their selection, with an official contract award due to take place in future.

The project involves building underground tank farms at two sites near Abu Dhabi airport that can store 192 million litres of jet A1 fuel.

Each tank farm will have a gross storage capacity of 96 million tonnes, with a pumping-out capacity of 5 million litres an hour.

Project tendering phase

UK-headquartered consultancy Penspen has performed the project’s front-end engineering and design works.

Adnoc issued the main EPC tender for the project in mid-August last year. Contractors were given an initial deadline of 31 August for submitting technical bids, which was later extended to 28 September.

After submitting technical proposals, contractors submitted the first round of commercial bids for the project in November.

Adnoc is understood to have eventually sought revised commercial bids from bidders after revising the project’s scope. Contractors submitted revised commercial bids by 1 March this year, MEED previously reported.

Project scope of work

The two sites selected for the Abu Dhabi airport tank farm project are located in East Midfield, which is close to the existing North Depot and about 1.5 kilometres from the first site.

The contractors will be required to execute EPC of the following units and services at each site:

  • 16 underground storage tanks measuring 30 metres in diameter and 8.8 metres in height, surrounded by a secondary concrete dyke offset by 3 metres from the tank shell
  • 22 delivery pumps, each with a capacity of 240,000 litres an hour
  • Two delivery pumps, each with a capacity of 150,000 litres an hour
  • Two metering skids at discharge header before connecting to the existing hydrant header at two different locations
  • Closed drain system consisting of closed drain vessels, closed drain transfer pumps, product recovery tanks, product recovery tank transfer pumps and filter water separators and sampling pumps
  • Open drain system consisting of open drain vessels, open drain transfer pumps and oily water separator packages
  • Dedicated plant air/instrument air system and potable/utility water systems
  • Dedicated vent pipe that will terminate above the ground at a location to be specified later
  • Forced venting system for tank annulus and pipe corridor
  • Power for each site to be sourced from the existing substation of the Abu Dhabi Distribution Company
  • Emergency diesel generators to cater to emergency power supply
  • Substation building including switchgear and transformers
  • Uninterrupted power supply system for critical services
  • Installation of fire and gas detection and alarm system, as well as public address general alarm system
  • Process control system, safety instrumented system, emergency shutdown system and fire and gas systems
  • Fire protection system, including foam storage system and spray system
  • Drone protection systems
  • Other supporting systems, such as lighting, earthing, cathodic protection, telecommunications, closed-circuit television and access control systems
  • All process and non-process facilities and services are to be provided within the buildings. All above-ground services and support buildings are to be provided with heating, ventilation and air conditioning, fire fighting, power, potable water, sewerage and stormwater systems, as applicable

The storage tanks will receive jet A1 fuel from the Mussafah industrial area in Abu Dhabi.

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Indrajit Sen

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