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KBR makes strides in the Middle East and West African markets

U.S. engineering company lands development projects for some of the more promising parts of the world.

By Daniel J. Graeber
U.S. engineering company KBR laying early ground work for the next stage of oil and natural gas developments in the Middle East and West Africa. File photo by Stephen Shaver/UPI
U.S. engineering company KBR laying early ground work for the next stage of oil and natural gas developments in the Middle East and West Africa. File photo by Stephen Shaver/UPI | License Photo

Aug. 21 (UPI) -- U.S. engineering company KBR said it would help the Abu Dhabi National Oil Co. find ways to develop a giant gas field, its second such project in a week.

KBR said it landed a two-year contract from a subsidiary of Austrian energy company OMV, working on behalf of the Abu Dhabi National Oil Co., known also as ADNOC, for the front-end engineering design phase of the Hail & Ghasha project. That project could eventually yield as much as 1 billion cubic feet of natural gas per day.

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Austrian energy company OMV signed agreements last year with ADNOC and Occidental Petroleum, based in the United States, to conduct surveys for several undeveloped oil and gas fields off the coast of Abu Dhabi.

KBR said part of its work with ADNOC would be to examine the infrastructure requirements to build 11 artificial islands to help develop Hail & Ghasha.

Last week, ADNOC said it was in "advanced discussions" with more than a dozen potential partners expressing an interest in offshore areas. During the past five years, the company said it's completed projects contributing to a production rate of around 1.4 million new barrels of oil per day.

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The United Arab Emirates is a member of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and party to the multilateral effort to balance an oversupplied market with production declines. Emirati production in July was around 2.9 million barrels per day, down from the fourth quarter average of 3.1 million bpd.

Last week, KBR said it was awarded an early-stage contract to provide support for BP as the British energy company works to exploit a basins off the coasts of Mauritania and Senegal, home to some of the more promising oil finds in decades. For BP, KBR said it would help BP establish the region for liquefied natural gas, an accelerating part of the energy sector, at the Tortue project.

"KBR is pleased to offer our world-class engineering design expertise to continue to support this significant project from its early stages and to help BP and its partners develop an LNG hub for Mauritania and Senegal," KBR's regional president, Jay Ibrahim, said in a statement.

KBR did not disclose the terms of either contract.

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