The UAE is gearing up to boost natural gas output by awarding US Bechtel a $1.458 billion development contract, its state gas company has said.

The Abu Dhabi Gas Industries Ltd (Gasco), a unit of the Abu Dhabi National Oil Co (Adnoc), is leading a drive to expand gas production from five billion cubic feet per
day (cfd) to seven billion.
 Phase three of the just-awarded Habshan onshore gas deal will hoist pumping rates by 1.3 billion cubic feet per day and help boost pressure in the country’s oilfields via reinjection. The mega-project, when completed in 2007, will also produce 130,000 barrels per day of condensates and 12,000 tonnes per day of natural gas liquids.
The Habshan contract is the first, and largest, of five packages in Adnoc’s onshore gas development scheme.  Other projects in the pipeline are the $1-billion Ruwais natural gas liquids scheme and the $700-million phase two Asab gas development, sources said.
Meanwhile, Dolphin Energy Ltd said it has awarded a $62-million deal to a unit of France’s Technip and a local company to build a gas receiving facility and pipeline network in Abu Dhabi.
Technip (Abu Dhabi) and Al Jaber Energy Services Consortium won the contract to build the onshore receiving facilities at the existing Taweelah Power Station for Dolphin Energy’s gas export pipeline from Qatar.