The upstream development project for Qatar Liquefied Natural Gas Company Ltd (Qatargas) involved the engineering, procurement, construction, transportation, installation and commissioning of process utilities platform topsides.

Located 80km northeast of Ras Laffan in Qatar in the North field, NPCC acted as the EPC contractor with Technip Geoproduction (TPG).

For NPCC, the project involved part procurement, construction, transportation and installation with an NPCC-owned barge. Technip provided engineering, part procurement and commissioning.

The process utilities platform topside is the core of Qatargas' upstream development, and is designed to receive gas from two wellhead platforms before transporting via 32" pipeline to the onshore facilities at Ras Laffan in Qatar.

Using the ''dry process scheme'' the effluent is processed through two trains of 450 million cu ft per day capacity each.

Work was carried out between December 12, 1993 (award of main contract) and June 12, 1996 at NPCC's fabrication yard at Mussafah in Abu Dhabi. Offshore installation took place on March 13, 1996.

The 7,500 tonne weight heavy integrated module was installed by NPCC utilising TPG patented Uni-Deck floatover installation technique. The installation was carried out in record time using NPCC Launch Barge LB-1.

Particulars of the topside included an eight-legged, three level integrated module; process components including separators, coolers, glycol regeneration package, gas turbine generators, pedestal cranes. Total weight was 7,500 tonnes and took a total of 1.8 million man hours of onshore construction time.