Saudi Arabia’s Aramco has awarded three packages of contracts with a combined worth of more than US$25bn to progress its strategic gas expansion. Sixteen contracts worth US$12.4bn are associated to phase 2 development of the Jafurah unconventional gas field, including the construction of gas compression facilities and associated pipelines, expansion of the Jafurah Gas Plant (including construction of gas processing trains, and utilities, sulfur and export facilities). The project will also involve construction of the new Riyas Natural Gas Liquids (NGL) fractionation facilities in Jubail to process NGL from Jafurah.
An additional 15 lump sum turnkey contracts worth US$8.8bn for the phase three expansion of the master gas system. The expansion will increase the size of the network and raise its total capacity by an additional 3.15 bcf/d (89 mcm/day) by 2028, through the installation of around 4,000 km of pipelines and 17 new gas compression trains.
Another 23 contracts worth US$2.4bn have also been awarded for 23 gas rigs, along with two directional drilling contracts worth US$612m.
The Jafurah unconventional gas field is estimated to contain 229 tcf (over 6,480 bcm) of raw gas and 75 Gbl of condensate. Aramco expects total overall lifecycle investment at Jafurah to exceed US$100bn and production to reach a sustainable sales gas rate of 2 bcf/d (57 mcm/d) by 2030, in addition to significant volumes of ethane, NGL, and condensate.