(Yicai) Sept. 5 -- Chinese construction engineering giant China Petroleum Engineering and Construction Corporation has won a USD325 million contract to expand the capacity of a crude oil central processing facility of a large onshore oilfield in the United Arab Emirates.

CPECC will build the ninth processing station of the Babu Oilfield's crude oil CPF, operated by Abu Dhabi National Oil Company Onshore, CPECC's Beijing-based parent company China Petroleum Engineering Corporation announced late yesterday.

The project consists of building new facilities and dismantling, relocating, and repurposing some existing ones, and will have the capacity of processing 100,000 buckets of crude oil daily when completed, CPEC added, noting that the contract duration is expected to be 39 months.

Signing the deal and the smooth construction of the expansion project will help CPEC consolidate and expand its onshore oil and gas engineering construction business in the UAE and positively impact the firm's operating revenue and profit in the next four years, the company said.

The project is part of the UAE's P5 Production Increase Plan, which aims to raise the daily output of the Babu Oilfield from 485,000 buckets to 576,000 buckets. The new output increase will fully depend on the ninth processing station built by CPECC, the parent firm noted.

ADNOC Onshore, in which Abu Dhabi National Oil Company holds a 60 percent stake, is one of the UAE's oldest oil producers. ADNOC Onshore produces around two million buckets of crude oil a day, CPEC said.

CPEC's Shanghai-listed shares [SHA: 600339] were trading down 1.8 percent at CNY3.82 (52 US cents) as of 10.35 a.m. today.

Editor: Futura Costaglione