Qatar Petroleum has awarded a Front-End Engineering Design (FEED) contract to McDermott Middle East for the North Field Expansion Project’s offshore pipelines and topsides facilities, the Qatari company announced on May 27.

“This award comes on the heels of a series of announcements for other components of the project that are all important milestones towards delivering our strategy of increasing Qatar’s LNG production capacity from 77 to 110 million tons per annum, which is progressing well and according to plan on all fronts.” Saad Al-Kaabi, Qatar’s Energy Minister and the President and CEO of Qatar Petroleum, said.

The FEED contract is expected to be completed in 12 months, and it will require McDermott to provide the engineering design of the surface installations of eight unmanned platforms, four major 38-inch pipelines, and four 28-inch field pipelines.

It is worth mentioning that Qatargas has been assigned to execute this giant project on behalf of Qatar Petroleum due to its experience in operating many onshore and offshore facilities in the North Field with a high degree of reliability and operational excellence.