Leading the race: SNC-Lavalin and KBR
SNC and KBR face off for Saudi duo
Canada's SNC-Lavalin Group and US player KBR lead the race for deals for early design and engineering deals at two gas projects in Saudi Arabia, according to reports.
The projects are at the manifa and Shaybah oilfields, and are planned to meet rising domestic demand for gas and feedstocks for petrochemical plants. The world's largest oil exporter is rapidly increasing petrochemical capacity as part of plans to diversify its economy.
Saudi Aramco has not officially revealed plans to carry out the projects. An Aramco spokesman declined to comment when contacted by Reuters.
SNC-Lavalin is the lowest bidder on both projects but Aramco was unlikely to award both deals to the same company, Saudi-based contractors told the news agency.
KBR, which only submitted bids for the bigger Shaybah gas project, was expected to win that deal, they said.
Heather Browne, KBR's director of corporate communications, confirmed to Reuters in a recent email that the engineering and contruction giant was only bidding for Shaybah.
She declined to provide financial estimates.
"It's pretty much final, your information is correct," one contractor aware of the bidding process told Reuters when asked if SNC Lavalin and KBR would be selected.
The Manifa gas development programme will provide for the production and processing of around 1 billion cubic feet per day of Khuff gas from the Arabiyah field, which lies off Saudi Arabia.
An executive at Aramco told Reuters in May that the state-run giant would build another gas plant at Manifa. That plant would process 1 Bcfd of gas from Arabiyah and Hasbah, he said.
Arabiyah is one of two offshore gas fields non-associated with oil that Aramco discovered in January. The other was Hasbah. It is unclear how much gas Arabiyah alone could pump, but the two together could supply 1.8 Bcfd.
The Manifa programme is split in four projects that include gas processing facilities, two offshore gas platforms one tie-in platform to handle around 1 Bcfd of gas, subsea power and communication links and pipelines.
Aramco has yet to finalise how it would develop the gas processing facilities. It will either build a new plant at Manifa or Jubail or expand existing facilities at Manifa and Berri.
If Aramco decided to build a grass root plant at Manifa or Jubail, the plant will produce around 750 million cubic feet per day of sales gas and 1700 tonnes per day of sulphur through two gas processing trains.
At Shaybah, the three main projects cover a new natural gas liquids recovery facility. The plant would strip out ethane, propane and natural gas liquids while producing gas for reinjection in the oilfield.
Work also includes debottlenecking gas-oil separation plants at Shaybah and the installation of facilities at the Berri gas plant to split out natural gas liquids from the recovery facility.
Aramco said the three other projects under the Shaybah program would be carried out by a local design company.
They cover the installation of a new pipeline from the Shaybah natural gas liquids recovery facility to Juaymah gas plant, site preparation for the recovery facility and the expansion of residential and industrial complex at Shaybah. Facilities at Manifa and Shaybah would be completed in 2014.
Jacobs Engineering, Technip, Foster Wheeler, Fluor and Worley Parsons also submitted bids to carry out the early design and engineering and manage the construction of the projects on 22 August, Reuters said