Saudi Aramco has issued as many as four offshore tenders this month that together involve up to 30 new offshore jackets required for multiple offshore oilfields.

Sources told Upstream that Aramco recently issued tender documents to up to nine engineering, procurement and construction players that are a part of its long term agreement (LTA) arrangements.

The quartet of tenders are thought to be the first set of jobs to be floated by the state-owned giant this year.

The first three are expected to centre on engineering, procurement and construction of up to 30 offshore wellhead jackets, with each likely to involve 10 jackets, one source said.

The jackets will be installed across multiple offshore fields, including Safaniyah, Zuluf, Marjan and others.

A fourth project has also been offered to LTA players, but is thought to be smaller in scale and to involve brownfield and modification work, one source said.

The four projects are together expected to be worth upwards of $600 million.

A second source said that there is no clarity yet on the bid submission dates for the four new tenders, but offers could be submitted as early as next month.

Industry sources said the new LTA tenders are expected to highly competitive after the addition of four new players to the LTA list in December last year.

Malaysia’s Sapura Energy, China’s Offshore Oil Engineering Company (COOEC), a pairing of United Arab Emirates-based Lamprell and Dutch player Boskalis, and another grouping of UK-based TechnipFMC and Malaysia Marine & Heavy Engineering were recently confirmed as the new entrants.

In addition to the new players, McDermott International and Dynamic Industries of the US, Italy’s Saipem, a partnership of India’s Larsen & Toubro with Oslo-listed Subsea 7 — which acquired Emas Chiyoda’s business in Saudi Arabia in 2017 — and Abu Dhabi’s National Petroleum Construction Company are also LTA members.

All nine contractors are expected to compete for the four new projects that have been offered by Aramco.

Aramco has aggressive investment plans for its offshore fields, at least for the next few years. The state-controlled giant is currently carrying out large scale expansion of its Marjan and Berri offshore fields — projects that are both said to be worth billions of dollars.

In addition, Aramco is expected to start a major development programme later this year involving further development of its Zuluf offshore field.

Aramco is also expected to start soon the tender process for an EPC contract involving the further expansion of its Abu Safah offshore oilfield.

LTA investments are expected to exceed $3 billion each year for the next few years as Aramco aims to continue spending on maintaining its offshore production profile.

Weekly

Aramco puts four new offshore jobs on menu