Saudi Aramco invites bids for construction of gas plant

Khobar: State oil giant Saudi Aramco has invited companies to bid for the construction of the biggest gas plant in the kingdom, industry sources said Sunday.

After completing a crude oil capacity expansion plan last year, the world's top oil exporter has focused on developing gas production to meet rapidly rising domestic demand.

Aramco has given no cost estimate for the Wasit plant, but industry sources said it would cost between $6 billion (Dh22 billion) and $8 billion.

Twelve companies have passed Aramco's qualification process and can bid for each of the four construction packages.

The packages are for a gas unit, a co-generation power plant, a sulphur recovery unit with utilities and the final package is for a natural gas liquids (NGL) fractionation plant. Bidding would close by September 29, the sources said and the contract would probably be awarded in January.

Canada's SNC-Lavalin has completed the front-end engineering and design (FEED) work for the plant, one source said.

Wasit would process up to 2.5 billion cubic feet per day of gas from the Arabiyah and Hasbah offshore gas fields.