New player with ‘powerful’ tools joins mission to augment production from one of world’s largest offshore oil fields

The ongoing efforts to expand black gold production from Qatar’s largest offshore oil field have been bolstered with the entrance of the American Bureau of Shipping (ABS), a classification society, on the scene, as ABS is expected to assist with the planned field development with engineering and risk management solutions.

After being hand-picked to join the production ramp-up game by Genesis North America (GNA), a major subcontractor of Offshore Oil Engineering (COOEC), ABS will support the Ru’ya project, a production capacity improvement plan for the Al Shaheen field in Qatar which is operated by North Oil Company (NOC), a joint venture between QatarEnergy (70%) and TotalEnergies (30%).

John McDonald, ABS President and COO, commented: “ABS is providing a powerful solution for GNA, with world class engineering services developed through more than 70 years of experience supporting offshore operations. We are proud to be able to support this project, which has such potential to boost production from a globally significant field.”

While its advanced analysis team will lead a safety engineering program, providing risk mitigation and asset integrity support, ABS will perform several critical studies, including dropped object analysis for subsea pipelines and cables.

The Ru’ya project aims to boost production of the Al Shaheen field by approximately 100,000 barrels of oil per day (bpd). This is described as one of the world’s largest carbonate fields and the largest oil field offshore Qatar, approximately 70 km northeast of Ras Laffan.

Recently, Hanwha Ocean constructed a new platform for the Al-Shaheen oil field, which was slated to depart from the Geoje Okpo yard at the end of July 2024 and arrive in Qatar within 25 days. The first oil is set for the end of December 2024.

When QatarEnergy confirmed plans to raise the oil production bar at the field by about 100,000 barrels per day, it also disclosed four multibillion-dollar engineering, procurement, construction, and installation (EPCI) contract packages.

These deals will enable McDermott, Hyundai Heavy Industries, Larsen & Toubro, and China Offshore Oil Engineering Co (COOEC) to handle the third phase of Al-Shaheen’s development since North Oil Company took over the field’s operation in July 2017.

Qatar’s energy giant is also pursuing its LNG fleet expansion program through the execution of shipbuilding contracts and time charter agreements for 104 conventional LNG vessels and 18 QC-Max class LNG ships, amounting to a total of 122 ultra-modern vessels, with the first new ship slated to be delivered by the end of Q3 2024.