Growth fuels demand

The rapid growth of Abu Dhabi, commercially, industrially, and as a global tourism destination, has prompted the need for a strategy to cope with the high demand for energy. With consumption increasing by 11 percent annually, ADGAS is taking a leading role in fulfilling that strategy and satisfying Abu Dhabi’s future energy requirements. Demand is rising due to developments such as Saadiyat Island (above), which is now under construction and is expected to be completed in 2020.

Health and safety

ADGAS is committed to maintaining an incident-free work environment and continually improving safety standards at every level of operation

65 million

Total ADGAS work-hours without lost-time injury as of July 2014

Powering the future of Abu Dhabi

Two key projects serve
Abu Dhabi’s needs

ADGAS has a central role in the UAE’s economic development and in Abu Dhabi Vision 2030, ensuring that a sustainable source is available to meet Abu Dhabi’s growing demand for clean energy.

This role is performed through the construction and commissioning of the Offshore Associated Gas facilities (OAG) and the Integrated Gas Development (IGD) project, both designed to cater for Abu Dhabi’s ever-increasing requirements for natural gas. Both OAG and IGD-E phase II help ADMA-OPCO uninterrupted oil production by processing captured associated gases.

The two projects widen the scope of ADGAS’ mandate and vital participation in Abu Dhabi’s national energy strategy. The projects are designed to receive, compress, and dehydrate one billion standard cubic feet per day (1 BSCFD) of associated and non-associated gases provided by Abu Dhabi Marine Operating Co (ADMA-OPCO), and then export them through a 30-inch subsea pipeline to Habshan onshore facilities, to be further processed and sent to consumers in Abu Dhabi and to the northern emirates for domestic use.

The IGD projects’ civil and marine implementation components represented almost half the development cost. The main challenge was the projects’ location on Das Island, a small island with very limited space for extra construction of new gas processing facilities. All available sites had been exhausted by industrial development over the past three decades, so reclamation of more land was necessary.

The new IGD facilities plot and its subsequent site preparation and reclamation works were constrained by the OAG facilities to the east, the 30-inch gas sub-sea pipeline from the north, and the 10-inch Total ABK oil sub-sea pipeline from the south.

Further challenges were imposed by the need to have vertical concrete supporting walls at 12 meters above sea level, instead of simpler inclined revetment slopes that would have encroached over the sub-sea pipelines.

An additional major challenge was meeting the strict HSE requirements concerning societal risk where requirements stipulated that the maximum number of workers should not exceed 800, leading ADGAS to opt for a modularization construction concept for all main structures at the EPC contractor’s yard in Korea.

Modularization addressed the issue of societal risk while also drastically minimizing the time needed for final site hook-up works. Modularization also allowed simultaneous construction activities. While the modules were being built in various fabrication yards, civil and marine preparation and reclamation work was ongoing at Das Island.

Due to the nature of the marine civil works, a large quantity of huge rocks had to be transported from Ras Al Khaima quarries and thousands of specially designed concrete blocks weighing 90 tons each were used to confine the new reclaimed site. The blocks were pre-cast in a special batching plant in Ajman and transported to Das on more than 40 barges that made about 600 trips. Each vessel had to comply with ADNOC’s requirements for working in oil fields and pass the relevant inspection and vetting necessities.