The Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) announced awarding a dredging, land reclamation and marine construction contract to build multiple artificial islands in the first phase of development of the Ghasha concession to the UAE’s National Marine Dredging Company (NMDC), ADNOC announced on February 6th.

The contract was signed by Abdulmunim Al Kindy, ADNOC Upstream Executive Director, and Yasser Zaghloul, NMDC CEO, and was witnessed by UAE Minister of State and ADNOC CEO, Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, and Mohammed Al Rumaithi, Chairman of NMDC.

“As one of the world’s largest sour gas projects it will make a significant contribution to the UAE’s objective to become gas self-sufficient and transition to a potential net gas exporter,” Al Jaber said.

Under the $1.36 billion, NMDC plans to construct 10 new artificial islands and two causeways, as well as expand an existing island, Al Ghaf.

The project is expected to take 38 months to provide the required infrastructure to develop, drill and produce gas from the sour gas fields in the Ghasha Concession, the company said in a statement.

The project is anticipated to produce more than 1.5 billion cubic feet per day of gas which will help provide electricity to more than two million homes. Moreover, 120,000 barrels per day (b/d) of oil and high-value condensates are expected to be produced as well.

Constructing the artificial islands will have cost and environmental benefits, especially in shallow water, through using the lower-cost land-drilling rigs instead of high-cost offshore jack-up drilling rigs.