Oil services group Petrofac has picked up a $600m contract to develop a major liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) project in Oman, The Telegraph reported.

The Irish company signed a three-year contract with Salalah LPG SFZCO (SLPG), a wholly owned subsidiary of Oman Oil Facilities Development Company LLC (OOFDC), to undertake the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) of its Salalah liquified petroleum gas (LPG) extraction project in the southern part of Oman, according to Times of Oman. Petrofac has already worked on initial engineering and design for the development, which will recover butane, propane and condensates from the existing gas system.

Petrofac is heavily focused on work in the Middle East and has said it continues to see strong opportunities to bid for projects for national oil companies in the region. Accordingly, analysts have been awaiting concrete evidence of new contracts and welcomed the Oman deal.

Credit Suisse said it would “go some way to appeasing investor concerns about Petrofac’s competitiveness” and said there appeared to be momentum to recovery in the projects market. Petrofac Group Chief Operating Officer, Marwan Chedid, added: “This contract is our eleventh in the Sultanate and reinforces our commitment to Oman where we have been present since 1988.”