Saudi Aramco has received bids from international engineering firms to expand the Hawiyah gas plant, Reuters has reported quoting industry sources, as the state oil giant continues spending to expand its core business.
The companies that submitted their proposals on Sunday are: South Korea’s Samsung Engineering, Spain’s Tecnicas Reunidas, Taiwan’s CTCI, Italy’s Saipem, Britain’s Petrofac, and India’s Larsen & Toubro (L&T).
South Korea’s Hyundai Engineering and Hyundai Development Co Engineering & Construction (HDEC) bid together as a consortium.
L&T and Samsung Engineering confirmed to Reuters they bid for the project.
Aramco plans to expand the processing capacity at Hawiyah by 1.3bn standard cubic feet per day (scfd). The Hawiyah gas plant currently processes 2.5bn scfd of gas. Hawiyah is part of Ghawar, the world’s largest onshore oilfield.
Raising gas production is key to Saudi Arabia’s plan to diversify its energy mix by cutting the use of crude oil and liquids for power generation while allocating more gas to other industries it aims to develop.
Despite falling oil prices, Saudi Aramco is pushing ahead with oil and gas projects that it has highlighted as a priority for the long term to keep the world well supplied with oil while meeting gas demand domestically.
It plans to nearly double gas production to 23bn standard cubic feet a day in the next decade.
