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MEOG TENDERS MEOG
Aramco cancels Marjan
maintenance project
SAUDI ARABIA STATE-OWNED Saudi Aramco is reported Industries, a consortium of UAE-based Lamprell
to have cancelled its tender for maintenance and Dutch company Royal Boskalis Westmin-
work at the giant offshore Marjan oilfield. Citing ster, the UAE’s National Petroleum Construction
sources close to the company’s long-term agree- Co. (NPCC), Sapura Energy of Malaysia, a con-
ment (LTA) programme, Upstream said that the sortium of TechnipFMC and Malaysia’s MMHE,
contract release purchase order 66 (CRPO-66) China Offshore Oil Engineering Co. and South
engineering, procurement and construction Korea’s Hyundai Heavy Industries.
(EPC) project had been called off. As part of wide-ranging efforts to minimise
The contract, covering EPC work on subsea the business impact of coronavirus (COVID-
cables, had been tendered to the pool of LTA 19), Aramco delayed by six months the Marjan
contractors earlier in the year. Its cancellation and Berri crude increment programmes during
comes after Aramco wrote off a separate job, Q2, projects that are set to more than double oil
CRPO-58 according to Upstream, covering a production capacity from the assets to a com-
tie-in platform and two production deck mod- bined 1.35mn barrels per day (bpd) at a cost of
ules for Marjan. around $18bn.
Upstream also reported that four other ten- These developments are also expected to
ders were recently issued, covering work at the result in the production of up to 2.5bn cubic feet
Marjan, Berri and Abu Sa’fah oilfields, while (71mn cubic metres) per day of associated gas,
work to construct an export platform at Juaymah which will be piped to the Berri gas plant.
was awarded to NPCC. OPEC’s de facto leader and swing producer,
“Having cut its 2020 CAPEX by around Saudi Arabia’s crude production has fluctuated
$12bn, […] deals like this […] are likely to be wildly this year, reaching an all-time, single-day
par for the course for Aramco in the short term,” record of 12.3mn bpd in March as it and Russia
Ian Simm, principal advisor at consultancy IGM engaged in an ill-timed race to the bottom for
Energy, told Middle East Oil & Gas (MEOG). prices. Output plummeted just a few weeks later
Aramco’s LTA pool comprises Italy’s Saipem, as Riyadh sought to bring about stability to the
McDermott of the US, a consortium of India’s market following the dual crises of overproduc-
L&T and UK-based Subsea 7, US firm Dynamic tion and COVID-19’s impact on demand.
P12 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 34 26•August•2020
