Al Yasat Company for Petroleum Operations (Al Yasat), a subsidiary of the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) has awarded a contract for the development of the offshore Bu Haseer field.

The AED633 million engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract has been awarded to Abu Dhabi’s National Petroleum Construction Company (NPCC), a statement said.

The agreement covers engineering, procurement, construction, and commissioning activities for offshore facilities, which will see production capacity from the Bu Haseer field increase from 8,000 bpd to 16,000 bpd in 2020.

A key feature of the award is that over half the value of the NPCC contract will feed back into the local economy under ADNOC’s In-Country Value program, the statement added.

Abdulmunim Al Kindy, upstream director at ADNOC said: “The award of the EPC contract, to further develop Bu Haseer, one of our most recent upstream developments, illustrates our commitment to growing production capacity and is part of our 2030 smart growth strategy, driving a more profitable upstream.

"Bu Haseer, which forms part of two exploration blocks awarded to CNPC in 2013, demonstrates the substantial exploration and production potential of Abu Dhabi’s subsurface and the commercial opportunities to maximize value from our upstream resources.”

Established in 1973, NPCC is owned by Senaat, an Abu Dhabi Government Holding Company and Consolidated Contractors Group (CCC).

The Al Yasat joint venture includes two concession blocks, one offshore and one mixed onshore/offshore. The anticipated oil in place from the entire offshore block is 1.5 billion barrels.

Tayba Al Hashemi, Acting CEO of Al Yasat, said: “In little more than four years, along with our partners CNPC, we have moved from development planning to production from the Bu Haseer field. By any benchmark this is a significant achievement and we look forward with confidence to quickly moving Bu Haseer to full field development, enhancing the already attractive returns for ADNOC and our partners.”

Al Yasat, 60 percent owned by ADNOC and 40 percent by CNPC, was established in April 2014 to conduct the exploration, drilling and maintenance of wells, as required for the extraction of crude oil from reservoirs.