Arabtec subsidiary wins Adnoc contract for largest onshore oilfield expansion

Target Engineering to expand Bu Hasa project for the Abu Dhabi company

A unit of Arabtec Holding, the Dubai listed construction company, won two contracts worth Dh210 million in Abu Dhabi. Silvia Razgova / The National

A subsidiary of Arabtec Holding won a Dh315 million contract for the expansion of Abu Dhabi’s largest onshore oilfield.

Target Engineering Construction Company will carry out construction and expansion works at Bu Hasa Integrated Field Development Project, owned by state oil giant Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (Adnoc), Arabtec said in a filing on Monday to the Dubai Financial Market, where its shares are traded.

The contract was awarded by master contractor Tecnicas Reunidas, a Spanish company overseeing the engineering, procurement and construction of the project within a 39-month time frame on behalf of Adnoc Onshore, a subsidiary of the state producer.

The contract extends Target’s scope of work from the previously announced Dh521m contract awarded in November 2018, bringing the total contract value to Dh836m.

The award “reflects our solid relationships across the markets in which we operate”, said Arabtec’s acting chief executive Peter Pollard.

Under the 28-month contract, which starts this month, Target will conduct general construction and expansion works at the existing Bu Hasa oil pad hubs, phase two of the gas lift, and the first and second phases of the produced water re-injection element of the project, the company said.

The project aims to increase production output at Bu Hasa to 650,000 barrels per day by October 2021.

Arabtec, whose portfolio of projects include the world’s tallest building, the Burj Khalifa, the Emirates Palace Hotel and Louvre Abu Dhabi, reported profit increases in eight quarters until the end of last year, after it restructured its business and sold a number of non-core assets.

The construction company is working to ramp up its project wins and has announced several awards to date in 2019.

“We continue to strengthen our industrial infrastructure portfolio, supporting our strategic priority to diversify our backlog,” Mr Pollard said on Monday.

“More than 50 per cent of our current backlog is spread across social, economic and industrial infrastructure and we will continue to build on our competencies to on-board similar projects in our core geographies.”