UAE Awards Petrofac $615M EPC Contract for Carbon-Capture Project
The Habshan oil and gas complex in Abu Dhabi, UAE, where U.K. contractor Petrofac has won a contract to install carbon capture and storage infrastructure.
Photo courtesy of Petrofac
Petrofac Ltd, the U.K.-based energy services provider, has been awarded a $615 million engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) contract by the state-owned Abu Dhabi National Oil Co. (ADNOC) for a new carbon capture and storage project in the United Arab Emirates.
The contract includes delivery of carbon capture units, associated pipeline infrastructure and a network of wells for carbon dioxide recovery and injection at ADNOC’s Habshan gas processing plant in southwestern Abu Dhabi.
The project, one of the largest such undertakings in the Middle East and slated for completion in 2026, will enable the capture and permanent storage of 1.5 million tonnes of CO2 annually from the Habshan gas processing plant and associated infrastructure. It will be transported via pipeline and injected into a network of wells deep in the subsurface, although ADNOC has not publicly specified the location of these reservoirs for permanent storage.
The Habshan project is part of ADNOC’s strategic plan to achieve net-zero emissions by 2045 as well as reduce carbon intensity by 25% by 2030. The UN’s net zero target is 2050.
ADNOC has previously said it has a decarbonization investment plan, with $15 billion focused on projects including “clean power, CCS, additional electrification of its operations, energy efficiency and new measures to develop on [the company's] long-standing policy of zero routine gas flaring.”
According to a statement by Petrofac Group CEO Tareq Kawash, the company will combine its CCS expertise “and UAE project delivery experience to support ADNOC Gas in delivering on its decarbonization plans.”
The firm won a previous contract at the Habshan facility in July, its first since it was reinstated to work in the UAE last year after pleading guilty in 2021 to charges by U.K. officials that it did not prevent former executives from paying bribes to win contracts in that country, Saudi Arabia and Iraq.
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Under ADNOC’s decarbonization plan, at least $3.8 billion will be invested to connect the company’s offshore operations to clean grid power, with an aim of reducing its offshore carbon footprint by up to 50%.
The plan also includes construction of a one-million-ton per year, low-carbon ammonia production facility as part of ADNOC’s efforts to help customers reduce CO2 emissions.
ADNOC also announced plans to install a fully modular 10-tonne-per-day industrial CycloneCC carbon capture unit at a nitrogen fertilizer plant located in Al Ruwais Industrial Complex in Abu Dhabi. The plant is 100% owned by Fertiglobe, UAE’s largest producer and distributor of nitrogen fertilizer.
The CycloneCC technology will be supplied by London-based Carbon Clean Ltd., which claims "it is far more efficient than conventional carbon capture methods, reducing costs while matching performance.”
