Saudi Arabian Oil Co. (Aramco) has awarded 16 subsurface and engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contracts worth $10 billion to start development of its 200-tcf Jafurah unconventional onshore natural gas field, the largest non-associated gas field in the Kingdom. The company is targeting 200 MMscfd of production by 2025 and a sustained 2 bcfd of sales gas output by 2030. Aramco also plans to produce 418 MMscfd of ethane and around 630,000 b/d of NGL and condensates, which it has designated as feedstock for its petrochemical industry.
Work covered by the contracts includes gas processing, gas compression, and a network of around 1,500 km of main transfer pipelines, flow lines, and gas gathering pipelines. The program also includes construction of the Jafurah Bulk Supply Point, transmission lines, power interconnection for the Jafurah gas plant, and new cogeneration capacity.
Aramco expects capital expenditure at Jafurah to reach $68 billion over the first 10 years of development and to exceed $100 billion over its lifecycle.
Samsung Engineering won an EPC contract for the 1.1-bcfd Jafurah Gas Process Package #1, which the companies expect to be complete in 2025. Samsung will build a gas treatment plant which will use two 550-MMcfd trains to remove sulfur and other substances from Jafurah gas as part of producing sales gas, NGL, ethane, sulfur, and stabilized condensate. Scope of the $1.23-billion contract also includes a slug catcher, acid gas removal unit, NGL recovery, mercury removal, and dehydration.
Aramco also awarded an EPC contract to Saipem SPA for 835 km of pipeline as part of Jafurah’s development. The contract involves construction of a hydrocarbon collection system and the transport of natural gas and condensate to the Jafurah plant. Saipem will also build a system to transport water separated from the treated gas.
The contract is worth $750 million.
Aramco received regulatory approval last year to develop Jafurah field in phases (OGJ Online, Feb. 24, 2020).