The Upper Zakum expansion project is a planned offshore oil and gas development programme in the United Arab Emirates aimed at increasing production capacity at the Upper Zakum oilfield. The project forms part of ongoing efforts to further develop one of the country’s offshore hydrocarbon assets.

Abu Dhabi National Oil Company has issued tender documents for several engineering, procurement, and construction packages associated with the next phase of the project. The tenders cover multiple scopes of work required for the planned expansion.

The Upper Zakum oilfield is the largest offshore oilfield in the UAE and is among the world’s largest offshore producing fields. Together with the Lower Zakum field, the asset base contains an estimated 50 billion barrels of oil reserves.

According to project information, Upper Zakum currently has a production capacity exceeding 1 million barrels per day. The new development phase, known as UZ 1.5MMBD, is intended to increase production capacity to approximately 1.5 million barrels per day. Earlier reports indicated that pre-FEED and FEED activities for the project were progressing ahead of the tendering stage.

Latest Updates

On latest updates, the Upper Zakum oilfield expansion works is advancing by selecting contractors for major engineering, procurement, construction, and installation (EPCI) packages valued at over $10 billion. The development aims to boost the field’s production capacity to 1.5 million barrels per day. Companies such as NDMC and McDermott were selected for the project. The multibillion-dollar development involves upgrades to artificial islands, subsea pipelines, offshore production platforms, power cables, and expanded processing facilities at Zirku Island.

Other major oil projects also advancing in the Middle East is the $988M upstream project in Kuwait. State-owned operator Kuwait Oil Company (KOC) is planning to award the contract to Larsen & Toubro within the next 30 days. Moreover, the contract is focused on developing Jurassic Light Oil (JLO) export facilities and upgrading the existing export network. Kuwait’s Central Agency for Public Tenders (Capt) has approved the award of the contract.

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Significance of Works on the World’s Second Largest Offshore Oilfield

The expansion of the world’s second largest offshore oilfield, Upper Zakum, is expected to have an immense significance. The first phase of the programme to raise the oilfield’s development oil capacity to 1.2 million bpd was launched in 2019. The initial goal was to increase the field’s output potential to 1 million b/d by 2024. However, this later increased to 1.2 million b/d with the project execution timeline eventually extended. The project’s main scope involves the EPC of several surface facilities and plants at the Upper Zakum offshore development.

These include the oilfield’s four main artificial islands such as Al-Ghallan, Umm Al-Anbar, Ettouk and Asseifiya. They are also known as Central Island, West Island, North Island and South Island, respectively. The project comes after Emirati state giant Adnoc is expanding the capacity of some of its largest offshore oilfields. It is part of its P5 programme, which aims by 2027 to ramp up its oil production capacity to 5 million barrels per day. It aims to ramp up production significantly from the existing 4.85 million bpd.

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