Al Jaber Energy Services (Ajes) yesterday said that it had won its second contract valued at Dh460 million from Petrofac Emirates for construction work on the Upper Zakum offshore oilfield.
The Al Jaber Group subsidiary will complete various marine logistics over the next 33 months for the north and south islands, which are part of the four artificial islands developed by Zadco.
The islands 84 kilometres off the coast of Abu Dhabi will hold drilling platforms, oil production facilities and supporting infrastructure to help increase production at the Upper Zakum field to 750,000 barrels per day (bpd) in 2015 from 550,000 bpd currently.
The contract is an extension of three other ongoing projects Ajes has on the islands including another from Petrofac Emirates, Zadco and a Technip- NPCC consortium.
“This project reflects the successful record of Ajes in the execution of giant projects with international construction standards,” said Obaid Khaleefa Al Jaber Al Marri, the chairman of Al Jaber Group.
The previous contract awarded by Petrofac had Ajes building temporary facilities for Petrofac staff on all four islands.
Petrofac said that temporary facilities construction continued on the south and central islands, with permanent work commencing on the north and south islands in June and July this year, respectively.
The London-based oil services firm has been affected by falling oil prices. Last month, Petrofac issued a warning, revising its expected net profit for next year to US$500m compared to previous analysts’ estimates of $675m.
The Petrofac chief executive Ayman Asfari said during the investor call last month that the firm would continue to focus on its activities in the Middle East.
On Friday Deutsche Bank lowered its price target on Petrofac to 800 pence from 1,050 pence as the company dropped the most on the FTSE 100 list.
“I am confident that Petrofac will meet the challenges presented by certain projects in our portfolio and the medium-term growth prospects for our business remain strong,” Mr Asfari said.
Petrofac shares rose 1.25 per cent to 686 pence in early afternoon trading in London.
lgraves@thenational.ae
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