Top 10 Gulf mega projects

ArabianOilandGas.com brings you the essential list of projects your company should be involved in. These top ten mega-projects from around the Gulf region all have the energy sector at their core, from offshore oilfield development through to the major water, power and petrochemical projects pushing ahead in the region.

The primary driving forces behind our project power list are Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the UAE, where energy and infrastructure projects on a world-leading scale continue to progress. With almost US$120 billion worth of critical energy and infrastructure projects up for grabs, is your company making the most of the local marketplace?

Our list has been compiled using key tender information from government and national energy company databases and assorted financial reports. Final project values may vary depending on fluctuations in material prices and modifications to project plan.

1. Ras Tanura Integrated Project (RTIP)
2. Pearl GTL
3. Petro Rabigh Refinery Upgrade  
4. Shah Sour Gas Field Development
5. Khurais Oilfield
6. Manifa Offshore Oilfield 
7. Saudi Kayan Petrochemicals Complex
8. Hassyan Power & Desalination Plant
9. Ras Girtas Power Project
10. Shaybah Phase 2 Expansion

Total cost: $114.5 billion

Ras Tanura Integrated Project (RTIP)

Client: Dow Chemical/Saudi Aramco
Scope: Over 11 million tpa of various petrochemical and chemical products.  
Status: Due for completion in 2015.
Estimated Cost: US$27 billion
Known Contractors: KBR have been awarded the project management contract. Remaining contracts out to tender in 2010.

When the world’s largest oil company joins forces with the world’s largest chemical company you know that the end result is going to be big . And RITP is very very big.

The facility will be the largest facility of its kind in the world and will produce a huge range of products including ethylene, propylene, aromatic, chlorine derivatives, polyethylene, ethylene oxide and glycol. It will also be connected to the Ras Tanura Refinery complex and its Jua’ymah gas processing plant.

The project further underlines Saudi Arabia’s massive expansion plans in regards to the petrochemicals industry. Output from the plant will be aimed at the export market  

The completion date has come under scrutiny recently with reports that the project could be delayed for one year.

Pearl GTL (Qatar)

Client: Qatar Petroleum
Scope: 140,000 bpd clean-burning fuel and other products, 120,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day of natural gas liquids and ethane.
Status: Due for completion in 2010.
Estimated Cost: $24 billion (up from an original estimate of $5 billion)
Known Contractors: JGC Corporation, Kellogg Brown and Root, Halliburton, MW Kellogg Ltd, Honeywell, Shell, General Electric.

Pearl GTL will be the world’s largest plant converting natural gas into clean-burning liquid transport fuel and other products.

The construction of Pearl is ongoing at Ras Laffan on Qatar’s coast. More than 40,000 workers currently work onsite, making it one of the world’s largest industrial developments.

Of the two million tonnes of prefabricated parts for the GTL plant and equipment, including 12,200 kilometres of cables, about half has already arrived.

A gigantic crane is currently lowering steel GTL reactors – at 1,200 tonnes each is as heavy as seven jumbo jets – on to concrete bases in the heart of the plant. Twelve of the 24 cylinder-shaped reactors central to making GTL products have been installed so far. Some are built in Germany. Barges ferry the giant reactors, each containing hundreds of kilometres of pipes along the Rhine to the Dutch port of Rotterdam. From there, they are shipped to Qatar.

Drilling is under way. Sixty kilometres offshore, preparations to produce the raw gas from the North Field are well under way. Two platforms sitting in water up to 40 metres deep will feed gas to the plant. The steel structures, or jackets, to support the platform are already in place on the seabed.

Petro Rabigh Refinery Upgrade (Saudi Arabia) 

Client: Saudi Aramco/Sumitomo
Scope: 2.4 million of petrochemical solids and liquids plus large volumes of gasoline and other refined products.
Status:  Commissioning started in March
Estimated Cost: $10 billion
Known Contractors: Shaw Stone & Webster, JGC, Maire Tecnimont, Mitsui Engineering & Shipbuilding, Shell, Foster Wheeler, Invensys Process Systems.

Petro Rabigh is another huge Saudi project and the finished result will be one of the world’s largest integrated oil refining and petrochemical facilities.

The joint venture between Saudi Aramco and Sumitomo Chemical Co of Japan will refine Arabian Light crude oil to produce high-value light petroleum products. The complex will also produce ethylene, propylene and other refined products. 

Sumitomo Chemical and Saudi Aramco each hold a 37.5% stake in Petro Rabigh, while the remaining 25% is owned by public investors, following an IPO which took place in early 2008.

Shah Sour Gas Field Development (UAE)

Client: Abu Dhabi National Oil Co (ADNOC)
Scope: Production and processing facilities for extremely sour gas field.
Status: Flour Corp. finished the initial engineering and design work on the Shah Gas Development last month and 10 contract packages are now being prepared for tender to be awarded “within the year”,
Estimated Cost: $10 billion
Known Contractors: ConocoPhillips

Desalination, construction and industrial power demands are increasing at an exponential rate, and though efforts such as the Masdar initiative will curb future requirement growth, it is essential the UAE works to harness the assets at its disposal.

The dolphin project is now running at full consumption of its current phase and the gas that’s supplied to the UAE is very close to maximum capacity, so alternatives need to be looked at.

In the short term it’s imperative that the UAE exploits what resources it possesses , and there are considerable sour gas reserves,”” explains Nick Coles, founder and organiser of the SOGAT conference and exhibition.

The UAE’s estimated natural gas reserves stand at around 214 trillion cubic feet. This puts the UAE fourth among the largest natural gas reserves in the Middle East after Iran, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia.

However, the high sulphur content of that gas has made full exploitation problematic up to now. Abu Dhabi holds the dominant share of the country’s reserves with proven fields of around 195 trillion cubic feet.

In Abu Dhabi the complexities envisaged in the development of the Shah and Bab fields have led to a rethink as to how best to optimise the gas potential of these sour fields against the considerable financial requirements involved, with the sour gas development project initiating these significant developments.

ADNOC have put out a tender to develop the Shah and Bab fields in conjunction with an IOC. This will expedite field development in the short term, and concurrently provide gas to fuel the UAE’s considerable industrial, commercial and domestic power requirements,” says Coles.

Khurais Oilfield (Saudi Arabia)

Client: Saudi Aramco
Scope: 1.2 million bpd oil, 315 million scfd sour gas, 70,000 bpd natural gas liquids 
Status: Almost completed, due to start production June 2009
Estimated Cost: $10 billion
Known Contractors:  SNC-Lavalin, Saipem,  Halliburton, Jacobs Engineering, SNC Lavalin, Saudi Consulting Services, Foster Wheeler Energy Limited

To put Saudi Aramco’s $10 billion Khurais oilfield project into perspective, the three fields involved in this huge venture, Khurais, Abu Jifan and Mazalij, hold 27 billion barrels of oil. This is more oil than the all of the proved reserves of the United States.

Khurais is the key component of Saudi Arabia’s bid to boost oil production by an extra 2 million bpd and nothing has been left to chance. The project involves the construction of a central processing facility, providing crude processing and stabilisation facilities, new wells and trunklines, a saltwater injection system, as well as a large residential and industrial complex.

With a completion date set for June 2009 the Khurais project has been some 46 years in the making. Situated close to Ghawar, the world’s largest oilfield, Khurais will provide an additional 1.2 million barrels per day Arab light crude to the KSA’s production capacity.

The project will also produce 315 million scfd of sour gas for the Shedgum Gas Plant and 70,000 bpd of natural gas liquids (NGL) for the Yanbu Gas Plant.

Manifa Offshore Oilfield (Saudi Arabia) 

Client: Saudi Aramco
Scope: 900,000 bpd oil, 120 million scfd sour gas, 50,000 bpd condensate, 950,000 bpd of produced water
Status: Due to start production mid-2011
Estimated Cost: $9 billion
Known Contractors: Saipem, Halliburton, Foster Wheeler, Tecnicas Reunidas, Jan De Nul Group

The $11 billion Manifa (also known as Moneefa) project will be Saudi Aramco’s largest offshore field when fully operation and will add 900,000 bpd of extra capacity to Saudi Arabia’s oil output.

As well as the heavy crude, the Manifa field will also produce 120 million scfd of sour gas, 50,000 bpd of condensate, and 950,000 bpd of produced water.

The huge outlay is being spent on constructing a number of drilling islands, a central processing facility, a water injection system, downstream pipelines,  and a massive 41km causeway that runs to shallow-water offshore platforms. This will facilitate the easy transportation of goods and services both to and from the mainland. The nearby Khursaniyah Gas Plant is also being upgraded to cope with the additional gas from the project.

Saudi Kayan Petrochemicals Complex (Saudi Arabia)

Client: SABIC/Kayan Petrochemicals
Scope: Six million tpa of petrochemical and chemical products
Status: Expected to go onstream late 2010
Estimated Cost: $9 billion
Known Contractors: Kellogg Brown and Root, Fluor, Samsung Engineering, Simon Carves, Tecnicas Reunidas, Van Leeuwen Pipe and Tube,

The project started life 2006 when SABIC formed a partnership with Kayan Petrochemicals and announced that it was planning to build the world’s largest integrated petrochemicals facility in Jubail Industrial City on the shores of the Arabian Gulf. 

The project was refinanced in 2008 in a $6 billion deal with a number of banks in a move to diversify the sources of finance. Saudi Kayan also took a $533m loan from the Saudi Industrial Development Fund to complete the construction costs. 

As well expanding the range of products produced in Saudi Arabia, Saudi Kayan intends to establish an applications centre which will focus on the development of industrial products and applications.

Hassyan Power & Desalination Plant (UAE)  

Client: Dubai Electricity and Watar Authority (DEWA)
Scope: Construction of six stations with a capacity of around 1500 MW (gross) power & 100 – 120 MIGD desalinated water with a configuration plus a water storage and transfer system.
Status: Work scheduled to begin early 2010
Estimated Cost: $8.6 billion
Known Contractors: Project out to tender

Demand for power and water in Dubai is continuing to rise steeply as a result of the Emirate’s burgeoning economy and growing population.

As a consequence, state-owned utility Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA) has begun building one of the largest power and desalination plants in the world which, upon completion, will produce 9,000 MW of power and 720 million gallons of water each day.

The plant is being built on a 4 km2 site 60 km south-west of Dubai City on the shores of the Arabian Gulf. Nakheel’s Dubai Waterfront development is under construction to the north of the site and the border with Abu Dhabi lies to the south.

The plant will be built in six stages with the first two stages, PI Station and PII Station, due online from 2012. PI and PII will each consist of a 1,500 MW combined cycle gas power island and a 120 MIGD (million imperial gallons per day) desalination island. Costs are estimated at $2 to 3 billion per stage. Later stages of the plant are planned to come online from 2013.

A seawater intake canal carrying 90,000 gallons of water each second runs along the northern length of the site providing each of the six stages of the plant with water for desalination and cooling. Construction of the canal begins in 2009 and involves extensive dredging and civil works including the building of a 1.5 km long offshore intake channel and a 4 km long onshore canal. In addition, an offshore outfall channel will be built for the discharge of cooling water and brine from the plant. The outfall channel ends 4 km out to sea so that warm discharged brine is not re-circulated into the intake channel.

Ras Girtas Power Project (Qatar)

Client: Qatar General Electricity & Water Company
Scope: 9000 MW and 340 million imperial gallon per day (MIGD) targeted capacity when complete
Status: Project scheduled to start production in 2010 and in  2011 initially with 2730 MW of power and 63 MIGD of water
Estimated Cost: $3.9 Billion
Known Contractors: Mitsui Corporation of Japan, Hyundai Engineering and Construction Company, Mitsubishi Heavy Industry, Sidem.

Qatar’s non-hydrocarbon economy is booming on the back of its gas investments and infrastructure developments. Population growth and increasing economic diversification will put a strain on current power and desalination capacity, so this project is key to the continued economic expansion of Qatar.

Qatar’s stable financial position and political environment, government support for investment, and availability of legislation and guarantees had contributed to the confidence of local and international banks in financing local projects, such as the Ras Girtas Project.

Careful consideration had been given to minimise and control emissions from the plant to meet international levels and standards and the government recently said it was comitted to completing the project on time, within allocated budgets and with a high level of quality and safety standards.

Once complete the plant will also provide off-peak electricity to neighbouring GCC countries via a planned regional power grid.  

The project is a Joint Venture between Qatar Petroleum (15%), Qatar Electricity and Water Company (45%), GDF Suez of France (20%), Mitsui Corporation of Japan (10%), Chubu Corporation of Japan (5%) and Shikoku Corporation of Japan (5%). “

Shaybah Phase 2 Expansion (Saudi Arabia)

Client: Saudi Aramco
Scope: 250,000 bpd extra oil capacity
Status: Almost completed, due to start production June 2009
Estimated Cost: $3 billion
Known Contractors: SNC-Lavalin, Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI), Energy and Power Contracting Co, Haif Co, Ahmad Al-Binali and Sons.

The Phase 2 expansion of the remote Shaybah oilfield, located in Saudi Arabia’s Empty Quarter has been quietly gaining momentum for the past five years. The completion date was supposed to be 2008 but work on the project slowed during 2008 due to a drop in global oil demand.

The project involves the construction of central processing facilites, including gas/oil separation plant, gas compression facilities, utilities, a gas turbine generation plant and electrical facilities. It has been reported recently that the project, which will increase the Shaybah’s capacity by 250,000 barrels per day (bpd) should be finished ‘within weeks’. The expansion will give Shaybah an output capacity of 750,000 bpd of Arabian Extra Light crude.