Siemens To Build Turbines in Saudi Arabia
Germany’s Siemens announced February 23 it had secured a $400mn order to supply five large gas turbines for Saudi Arabia’s new Fadhili power plant, 100 km northwest of Dammam.
All five ‘F-class’ turbines will be produced at the Siemens Dammam Energy Hub, the first manufacturing facility for gas turbines in Saudi Arabia and the largest in the Middle East.
The new Fadhili combined heat and power (CHP) project will generate about 1.5 GW comprising 400 MW of power and process steam to a new gas extraction plant in Fadhili, with the remaining 1.1 GW to be supplied to the wider Saudi market. France’s Engie announced three weeks ago it had won the contract to develop the $1.2bn project, due for commercial start-up in late 2019, and would have 40% equity, with two Saudi state-owned partners each having 30% interests.
Engie said then that the overall construction contract had been awarded to South Korea’s Doosan Heavy Industries & Construction, with Siemens as sub-contractor to supply the gas turbines.
Siemens has now said that the $400mn order has been placed by Doosan. Separately, a Siemens-Engie joint venture has signed a long-term service agreement to maintain the Fadhili CHP’s turbines for a period of 16 years.
Major non-associated gas project at Fadhili
The new upstream gas extraction plant at Fadhili, plus two others there, will produce 5bn ft³/d of non-associated gas, thanks to an investment by Saudi Aramco of some $13.3bn, noted Siemens' February 23 statement.
Siemens is ahead of schedule in Egypt (Photo credit: Siemens)
Elsewhere in the Middle East, Siemens is fulfilling orders for turbines at three giant 4.8-GW combined-cycle gas fired power plants in Egypt that are expected to run on gas from large new offshore discoveries now under development, including the 30 trillion ft³ Eni-operated Zohr field.
Siemens said January 31 2017 it is ahead of schedule in its delivery of that €8bn ($9bn) order signed in 2015. As part of that order, it undertook to establish a factory inside Egypt to make blades for wind turbines.
Mark Smedley