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Contractors express interest in Bab gas cap main plant

23 February 2026

 

Contractors have expressed interest to Adnoc Gas in participating in the main tendering exercise for a project involving the development of infrastructure to process incremental gas output arising from the unlocking of gas caps at the Bab onshore hydrocarbons development in Abu Dhabi.

As part of its 2030 upstream production increase goals, Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (Adnoc Group) is working to extract gas from four underdeveloped gas cap reservoirs at the Bab onshore field development – Thammama A, Thammama B, Thammama F and Thammama H. While the Thammama A, B and H reservoirs are estimated to collectively produce 1.45 billion cubic feet a day (cf/d) of gas, output from the Thammama F gas cap is expected to be at a rate of 396 million cf/d.

Existing trains at the Habshan processing complex in Abu Dhabi will be unable to handle the new gas volumes. Therefore, Adnoc Gas needs to build new facilities to process an additional volume of up to 1.85 billion cf/d of raw gas when its parent company starts production from the Bab gas caps.

To this end, Adnoc Gas is planning to build a gas processing plant in the Bab area, about 170 kilometres from Abu Dhabi, along with associated pipeline networks and other ancillary units, as part of the broader Bab gas cap development project. It has divided the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) scope of work on the project into four packages:

  • EPC package 1 – Main Bab gas cap plant
  • EPC package 2 – Early civil works
  • EPC package 3 – Pipelines
  • EPC package 4 – Non-process area works

Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange-listed Adnoc Gas issued an expressions of interest (EoI) document to contractors for the main EPC tendering process for the main Bab gas cap plant on 10 February, setting an initial deadline of 17 February for submission of EoI responses, MEED recently reported.

Adnoc Gas then extended the deadline for the submission of responses until 20 February, with contractors complying by that date, according to sources.

The other three packages remain in the EoI and the main contract tendering stages, the sources said.

Prior to issuing the EoIs for the Bab gas cap development project packages, Adnoc Gas completed an early engagement process with contractors in September and October last year, as MEED previously reported.

In December last year, Adnoc Gas awarded the front-end engineering and design (feed) works for the Bab gas cap development project, which will increase its gas processing capacity by about 20%, to Australia-based consultancy Worley. The feed contract has a duration of more than 1.2 million man-hours, making it the largest-ever engineering job awarded by Adnoc Gas.

Adnoc Gas currently has a capital expenditure (capex) commitment of $20bn for the 2023-29 period, which is on course to increase to about $28bn as the company strives to achieve financial investment decision (FID) on the second and third phases of its rich gas development programme in the first quarter of 2026.

The second and third phases involve building a natural gas liquids fractionation train at the Ruwais gas processing facility and a new gas processing train at the Habshan complex, respectively, Peter Van Driel, the company’s chief financial officer, said recently on a call with journalists.

Adnoc Gas’ capex commitment could exceed $30bn when the company is able to achieve FID on the Bab gas cap development project, which is currently expected to happen later this year, Van Driel further said.

https://image.digitalinsightresearch.in/uploads/NewsArticle/15717536/main3120.jpg
Indrajit Sen

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