2009's winners and losers in the oil industry

The Iraqi oil auctions. (Getty Images)
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Petrofac

While many companies have been quick to blame their current woes on the global recession (with good reason in most cases), it seems that one outfit is feeling the credit crunch about as much as the Spanish football giants Real Madrid.

Petrofac is arguably the Cristiano Ronaldo of the oilfield services sector in 2009 and has been winning the kind of contracts that make the US$80 million Real Madrid paid for the Portuguese maestro look like small change.

The company has recently been awarded includes a massive $2.2 billion engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract to build an oil and gas processing plant in Algeria. The facility will be built at the El Merk central processing facility (CPF) in the North African nation's Berkine Basin and will last 44 months. 

Not content with the Petrofac soon bagged another multi-billion project when it was awarded the $2.3 billion contract by Abu Dhabi Company for Onshore Oil Operations (ADCO) for the development of the onshore Asab oil field.

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Under the 44-month lump-sum contract, Petrofac will provide EPC services to upgrade the production capacity of the Asab field.

Other major awards include the recent  $350 million contract for the Kauther gas-field depletion-compression project in the Sultanate of Oman as well as an EPC contract for the utilities and cogeneration package at Saudi Aramco’s Karan gas development project.