New road to link Abu Dhabi's remote gas field with towns

The highway will connect Adnoc's Shah gas field and the town of Mezairaa near Liwa oasis

The new road will connect Adnoc's Shah gas field with Mezairaa, the main town near Liwa oasis. Courtesy: Wam / Musanada

A new road will connect Abu Dhabi's remote gas field with nearby towns.

The Shah gas field-Mezairaa link project is spread over an area of 450,000 square metres in the country's far south, close to the border with Saudi Arabia.

The publicly-owned infrastructure builder Musanada has begun work on the route, which involves the construction of a 13.3km link road between the industrial sulphur plant and the Hamim-Mezairaa road (E90), along with such as ducts and tunnels.

This road will be parallel to the Etihad railway and the project will serve the sulphur plant and provide another entrance to the oil and gas field area, reducing the distance by 35km for inbound motorists heading from Mezairaa towards the plant.

Abu Dhabi's transport agency, the Integrated Transport Centre, said the project "is located in a vital industrial area, which will improve the position of Abu Dhabi as an advanced economic and industrial centre", state news agency Wam reported.

Adnoc's Sour Gas subsidiary extracts and processes sour gas from the Shah gas field, producing 3.5 million tons of sulfur per year and supplying about 10 per cent of the UAE’s natural gas.

The country's sole train route is used to transport granulated sulphur between sites, averaging about 10,000 tonnes of sulphur per day.