2024-07-05

Saudi Aramco splashes $25bn on gas field and pipeline expansion, four Chinese firms awarded contracts

Saudi Aramco recently announced that it has signed contracts worth more than $25 billion for the second phase of the Jafurah gas field expansion and the third phase of the expansion of the main gas network.

There are 16 contracts related to the second phase expansion of the Jafurah gas field, with a total value of about $12.4 billion. The content will involve the construction of gas compression facilities and associated pipelines, the expansion of the Jafurah gas plant, including the construction of gas processing units, and the construction of utilities, sulphur and export facilities. Also included is the construction of Aramco's new Riyas Natural Gas Liquids (NGL) frdistillation facility in Jubeir, involving NGL separation units, utilities, storage and export facilities to process NGL received from Jafurah.

There are 15 contracts related to the third phase of the expansion of the main gas network, with a total value of about $8.8 billion. It plans to increase its daily processing capacity to 3.2 billion standard cubic feet by 2028 through the addition of approximately 4,000 kilometers of pipelines and 17 new gas compressor lines.

In the second phase of the Jafurah field expansion project, a joint venture between Sinopec Refining and Chemical Engineering and Spanish petroleum engineering company TR was awarded a contract worth more than $3.3 billion to build a new natural gas condensate (NGL) fractionation facility for the project. In the joint venture, Sinopec has a 35 percent stake and TR has a 65 percent stake.

In addition, in the third phase of the expansion of the main gas system, three Chinese companies have been awarded large EPC contracts. Among them, China Petroleum Engineering Construction Co., Ltd. won the EPC contract of the first phase, worth 9.997 billion yuan; Petrochemical oil Service won the pipeline project contracts for 6 and 7 sections, valued at RMB7.956 billion; Shandong Power Construction won the EPC contract of phase 2.

Among the contracts Aramco has signed are some drilling contracts, also worth billions of dollars.