Albawaba: With Rising Consumption, Saudi Arabia Throws its Weight Behind Gas Exploration

The hard push towards raising natural gas production in Saudi Arabia is relentless. Around the middle of November, Aramco signed contracts worth $5 billion (Dh18.3 billion) for the expansion of its domestic gas processing and distribution facilities.

The contracts cover the expansion and upgrading of the national Master Gas System (MGS), which was initiated in 1975 to transmit gas to major consumers in Saudi Arabia, including in the west of the country.

This has followed a contract worth $6.5 billion, also made in November, for the Fadhili gas processing plant (including sulphur recovery units). This will treat 2 billion cubic feet (bcf) a day of sour gas from the newly developed free gas offshore field of Hasbah in addition to 0.5 bcf from the onshore Khursaniyah oilfield.

The gas processing units, offsites and utilities were awarded to Spain’s Tecnicas Reunidas, while the six sulphur recovery units were awarded to UK’s Petrofac. MORE