Saudi Aramco signs contracts worth $4.5bn for mega projects

14/11/2017 14:26 AST

Saudi Aramco has signed agreements worth around $4.5bn with several contractors for oil and gas mega projects.

The objective of the projects is to enhance the company's energy sustainability, diversify the economy, increase gas production, and localise domestic content.

A total of eight agreements were signed, including three agreements with Spanish firm Técnicas Reunidas under the Gas Compression Programme in the Southern Area.

As part of the project, Aramco aims to improve gas production from Haradh and Hawiyah fields for the next 20 years by producing an additional 1.3 billion standard cubic feet per day (bscfd).

Saudi Aramco president and CEO Amin Nasser said: "These agreements we signed are part of our natural gas expansion, as we add about one billion standard cubic feet per day (bscfd).

"This reflects our commitment to introducing new supplies of clean-burning natural gas. These new supplies will help reduce domestic reliance on liquid fuels for power generation, enable increased liquids exports, provide feedstock to petrochemical industries, and reduce carbon emissions."

The scope of the compression programme includes installing gas compression facilities and liquid separation stations, as well as transmission lines to Haradh and Hawiyah gas plant.

In addition, the programme will feature an expansion of the existing gas gathering pipeline network.

Under the Hawiyah gas plant (HGP) expansion project, the company intends to create additional gas processing facilities to process 1,070 million standard cubic feet per day (mmscfd) of raw sweet gas, aimed at meeting the Kingdom's energy demand.

Works as part of the contract will be carried out by Italian firm Saipem's subsidiary Snamprogetti.

It is expected that the processing facilities will come on stream by June 2021, increasing the total production at HGP to around 3,860mmscfd.

Meanwhile, the free flow pipeline contract for Haradh and Hawiyah was awarded to China Petroleum Pipelines Company.

Hydrocarbons Technology