Riyadh has released details of its plans for Saudi Aramco to invest SAR412bn ($110bn) in the development of the Al-Jafura gas field in the kingdom’s Eastern Province.

On 20 February, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman al-Saud chaired a meeting of the Higher Committee for Hydrocarbons to review plans for the field, which is the kingdom’s largest non-conventional and non-associated gas asset.

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The field covers an area of 170km by 100 km, and the volume of gas is estimated to be 200 trillion cubic feet of wet gas that contains gas liquids for the petrochemical industries and high-value capacitors.

The development will gradually increase the field’s production to reach 2.2 trillion cubic feet a year by 2036, which would represent about 25% of the kingdom’s current gas production.

The field will produce approximately 130 thousand barrels a day (b/d) of ethane, which represents approximately 40% of the kingdom’s current production, and approximately 500 thousand b/d of gas liquids and condensates required for the petrochemical industries, which represents approximately 34% of Saudi Arabia’s current production.

The crown prince said the local sectors, including industry, electricity, water desalination and mining, will be given priority when it comes to allocating the field’s gas and liquids output. He added that the field would ultimately earn the government approximately $8.6bn a year and provide an estimated gross domestic product of $20bn.

MEED reported in October 2019 that Saudi Aramco is on course with its plans to begin unconventional gas production from a greenfield gas processing plant at its Jafurah onshore field in 2023.

The estimated $3.5bn plant is expected to produce up to 2.5 billion cubic feet of gas a day.

In January, the lowest bidders emerged for two key packages of the gas plant.

South Korea’s Samsung Engineering submitted the lowest bid for engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) on package 2 of the Jafurah gas plant project.

Package 2, which covers EPC works for the installation of the main gas processing plant, forms the core component of the project and is also the biggest package with an estimated value of $1.5bn.

The other bidders for package 2, in order of their bid prices, are:

  • Hyundai Engineering & Construction (South Korea) / Hyundai Engineering (South Korea)
  • Saipem (Italy) / Siirtec Nigi (Italy)
  • Larsen & Toubro Hydrocarbon Engineering (India)
  • TechnipFMC (France)

State-owned China Petroleum Engineering & Construction Company (CPECC) has emerged as the lowest bidder for EPC package 3.

The work on package 3 covers the installation of utilities and interconnecting facilities and is worth an estimated $500m.

The other bidders for package 3 were India’s LTHE and Lebanon-based CAT Group.

Package 1, which is understood to have a value of $1bn, remains in the bidding stage. Aramco has set a bid submission deadline of 23 March.

Bidders for package 1, which entails the installation of gas compression facilities, include:

  • Saipem (Italy)
  • Hyundai Engineering & Construction (South Korea)
  • TechnipFMC (France)
  • Larsen & Toubro Hydrocarbon Engineering (India)
  • JGC Corporation (Japan)
  • GS Engineering & Construction (South Korea)
  • Samsung Engineering (South Korea)

UK-based engineering company Wood Group is responsible for the front-end engineering and design work for the Jafurah gas plant project from its office in Reading, UK. Wood is also the project management consultant.

This article is published by MEED, the world’s leading source of business intelligence about the Middle East. MEED provides exclusive news, data and analysis on the Middle East every day. For access to MEED’s Middle East business intelligence, subscribe here