ABU DHABI : Abu Dhabi Gas Development Company (ADGAS) on Monday signed four contracts worth a total of 3.6 billion dollars with firms from Italy, South Korea, Spain and India to develop its Shah gas field. As part of an overall programme to develop the Shah sour gas reservoir, 180 kilometres (110 miles) south-west of Abu Dhabi, the contractors were awarded the turnkey contracts after competitive bidding, the company said in a statement.

Two contracts worth 1.6 billion dollars were signed with Italy's Saipem to construct gas treatment and sulphur recovery units and to build gas lines for the Shah project. The facilities aim to treat one billion cubic feet of gas per day.

South Korea's Samsung Engineering won a 1.49-billion-dollar deal, while Tecnicas Reunidas of Spain and India's Punj Lloyd clinched a 463-million-dollar deal, said the statement carried by state news agency WAM. A US partner, ConocoPhillips, announced in April that it was abandoning its 40-percent stake in the Shah gas field venture. Abu Dhabi has 97.8 billion barrels of proven crude reserves - the world's fifth largest, and more than six trillion cubic metres (212 trillion cubic feet) of gas, ranking world's fourth.