Hyundai Heavy Industries, the world’s largest shipbuilder, has won a $1.94 billion order to build four offshore oil production platforms and to lay undersea cables in the United Arab Emirates.

Under the deal signed with Abu Dhabi Marine Operating Company, or ADMA-OPCO, the shipbuilder will be constructing a gas treatment platform, a separation platform, an accommodation platform and an all-purpose structure to be set up in Nasr oil field, some 131 kilometers northwest of Abu Dhabi.

For Hyundai Heavy Industries, which has shown lackluster performances in the offshore plant construction sector in recent years, the UAE deal has been seen as a positive outcome.

“Given the fierce competition for winning contracts in the Middle East, the deal shows that Hyundai Heavy Industries was chosen based on the trust it has built up in previous projects it has conducted in the region,” an official at Hyundai Heavy Industries said.

Construction is slated to commence this month.

Once the platforms are completed by the second half of 2019, the facilities are expected to increase the daily oil production capacity of the offshore fields to 65,000 barrels from the current 22,000 barrels.

Construction of the platforms is a part of a bigger contract called the Nasr Full Field Development Project.

ADMA-OPCO, a joint venture of three leading energy firms ― Abu Dhabi National Oil Company, BP and Total ― chose Hyundai Heavy Industries for the second part of the project. ADMA-OPCO chose Abu Dhabi-based NPCC for the first part.

In 2006, Hyundai Heavy Industries built three new gas injection facilities for ADMA-OPCO’s Umm Shaif project. It was the first marine oil plant project in the UAE undertaken entirely by a foreign company.

Earlier this month, the South Korean shipbuilder clinched a $7 million order for two offshore natural gas platforms from Malaysia.

By Park Han-na (hnpark@heraldcorp.com)