Saudi Aramco has signed letters of intent with four engineering, procurement and construction contractors to include them in the list covered by its coveted long-term agreement (LTA) arrangements.

The Saudi giant is expected to sign formal agreements in early November with Malaysia’s Sapura Energy, China’s Offshore Oil Engineering Company (COOEC), a grouping of UK-based TechnipFMC and Malaysia Marine & Heavy Engineering and another consortium comprising London-listed Lamprell and Netherlands-based Boskalis.

With four new members set to come on board, Aramco will expand the LTA contractor list from five to nine.

Spain's Dragados Offshore was believed to have shown initial interest in the LTA expansion tender, but did not make it on to the final list.

It was previously thought that Aramco was looking to boost the list of LTA participants by two or three.

With LTA status, contractors have the potential to participate in the construction of a large number of offshore oil and gas platforms, tie-in platforms, pipelines, power cables, and related facilities required under the current master plan for Aramco’s offshore fields.

Aramco’s existing preferred LTA contractors are McDermott International and Dynamic Industries of the US, Italy’s Saipem, a partnership of India’s Larsen & Toubro with Oslo-listed Subsea 7 — which last year acquired Emas Chiyoda’s business in Saudi Arabia — and Abu Dhabi’s National Petroleum Construction Company (NPCC).

The first four contractors entered into LTAs with Aramco in 2015, while NPCC was added later.

Currently the five LTA contractors are bidding for five large Aramco offshore contracts, including a major package for its Berri incremental offshore development that is expected to be worth more than $1 billion alone.

The contract awards Aramco is preparing to place are expected to be worth more than $3 billion.

Without holding LTA status, international offshore contractors are not allowed to participate in most tenders launched by Aramco, although this does not preclude them from becoming involved as sub-contractors of the LTA members.

Aramco is expanding the LTA member list to help carry out the bundles of brownfield development and maintenance jobs at its offshore fields, which involves a massive workload that is likely to be offered in the coming years.

Aramco has finalised upstream projects worth more than $6 billion during the past two years with the five existing LTA players.

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Saudi Aramco eyes four more for LTA listing