Zakum Development Co., or Zadco, which is majority-owned by Abu Dhabi National Oil Co., will tender contracts next year to help it develop at a cost of as much as $15 billion the massive Upper Zakum oil field, a senior company official said.

Zadco, in which Exxon Mobil Corp. holds a 28% stake, plans to tender engineering, procurement and construction, or EPC, contracts for the so-called early producing facilities, or EPFs, at Upper Zakum in late 2010, Salah Al Bufalah, major projects manager at Zadco, said at an industry conference organized by London-based MEED in Abu Dhabi.

Completion of the project that’s vital for boosting oil capacity in the United Arab Emirates is on target for 2015, the official said.

The contracts are likely to be awarded in the first half of 2011, he added. The EPFs will provide an initial output boost at the field, which presently pumps about 500,000 barrels a day, with full capacity set to reach 750,000 barrels a day in 2015, Al Bufalah said.

The production level is set to be maintained for a period of 25 years from 2015, he added.

Zakum, which comprises the Upper Zakum and the Lower Zakum fields, is the second-largest field in the Persian Gulf and the fourth-largest oil field in the world. Japan’s Inpex Corp. holds a 12% stake in Zadco, while Adnoc owns 60%.  

(Dow Jones & Rigzone)