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Saudi Arabia’s Aramco has attracted the interest of four companies for work on unconventional gas amid plans to develop shale deposits, Reuters has reported.
The companies which expressed interest in bidding for the project are South Korea’s GS Engineering and Construction, Italy’s Maire Tecnimont, Japan’s JGC and Canada’s SNC-Lavalin, industry sources said.
Aramco chief executive Khalid al-Falih has said Riyadh will spend $3bn on shale gas development in the kingdom but has given no details on the investment.
The company have announced that the state- run project will include building processing facilities, wellheads and pipelines for the gas.
It will take place in Turaif in the northern part of Saudi Arabia where the big mining project Waad al-Shamal is under development, the sources said.
The search for gas is Saudi Arabia’s top priority with a focus on developing challenging shale deposit gas.
Aramco plans to produce as much as 200mn3 per day of unconventional natural gas by 2018 to supply the Waad al-Shamal project and a power plant, said the news agency.Â
