ConocoPhillips and Abu Dhabi National Oil Company sign Shah gas field joint venture and field entry agreements

ConocoPhillips [NYSE: COP] and Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) signed the Shah Gas Field Joint Venture and Field Entry agreements to develop the Shah Gas field in Abu Dhabi. ADNOC owns 60 percent interest and ConocoPhillips owns the remaining 40 percent interest in the project. Upon receipt of the Emiri Decree, a new operating company will be formed to manage and operate the project. The new operating company will be staffed with secondees from both companies, as well as direct hire personnel.

This large-scale project involves the development of sour natural gas and condensate reservoirs within the Shah Gas field located onshore approximately 180 kilometers southwest of the city of Abu Dhabi. The project requires the construction of facilities including gas gathering systems, gas processing trains and product pipelines designed to process and transport one billion cubic feet per day of gas, associated liquids and sulfur.

Due to the sour nature of the natural gas in the Shah field, extensive risk assessment studies have been conducted. During the front-end engineering and design stages, great attention was given to the selection of state-of-the-art health, safety and environmental systems. The Shah Project will include one of the largest sulfur removal plants in the world and will also include a sulfur processing and exporting facility, which will be located in Ruwais Industrial City, U.A.E.

To date six of 10 major Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) bid packages have been released for tender to pre-qualified contractors spanning the globe; remaining EPC bid packages will be released later this year. The complete results from this tender will not be known until early 2010.

Abdulla Nasser Al-Suwaidi, deputy chief operating officer and Exploration and Production director, ADNOC; and John Carrig, president and chief operating officer of ConocoPhillips, signed the agreements.