McDermott International has been awarded a $454 million contract from Pemex for engineering, procurement, construction & installation (EPCI) for the Abkatun-A2 platform that will be located in the Bay of Campeche.

To remind, Pemex’s Abkatun Alpha platform was involved in a fatal fire twice, in April 2015 and February 2016.

McDermott has now been selected to provide a vertically integrated, turnkey EPCI solution to build and commission the platform and associated structures utilizing its project management and engineering team in Mexico.

According to the company, the Abkatun-A2 platform is McDermott’s largest project in size and total value to-date for Pemex. The platform will be located in Mexico’s Bay of Campeche in 124 feet of water and will provide replacement and expansion capabilities to the existing Ku-Maloob-Zaap, Cantarell and Ayatsil facilities.

“McDermott provided the most efficient and technically compliant solution leveraging our capabilities in Mexico and our recent experience with PEMEX on the successful completion of the complex PB Litoral project,” said Scott Munro, McDermott Vice President for Americas, Europe and Africa.

“Our fully-integrated solution will be led by our team in Mexico, including project management, procurement, engineering, fabrication and installation. This allows us to optimize all phases of the project.”

McDermott will manufacture structures for the Abkatun-A2 project at the Altamira, Mexico fabrication facility which is positioned as a free trade zone and provides fabrication services for the Gulf of Mexico and Americas.

McDermott said it is expected to utilize the Derrick Barge 50 and the Intermac 650, the world’s second largest float-over installation vessel.

“McDermott has focused on several initiatives to lower costs and increase operational effectiveness to become more competitive in the market,” added Munro. “Those efforts, coupled with key strategic decisions that maximize operations and execution in Mexico, directly contributed to the positive outcome of this award and will differentiate McDermott from our competitors for continued growth and success.”

The contract award will be reflected in McDermott’s second quarter 2016 backlog.

Engineering and procurement activities will start immediately with fabrication scheduled to begin in late 2016 followed by offshore activities in 2018. Handover to Pemex is scheduled for fourth quarter of 2018.