Page 12 - MEOG Week 46

MEOG PROJECTS & COMPANIES MEOG

Aramco to hand out

Safaniyah work next year

SAUDI ARABIA HAVING put several of its major upstream pro- of 12.1mn barrels per day (bpd) in April. Other
jects on hold this year because of the coronavirus fields that produced above MSC included Berri,
(COVID-19) pandemic, Saudi Aramco is pre- Marjan and Zuluf.
paring to resume awarding contracts for major These fields are pivotal to Aramco’s efforts to
oilfield work in 2021. maintain production levels, offsetting declines at
The company is understood to have issued more mature assets.
tender documents to contractors pre-qualified When Aramco published its financials for
for Aramco’s sought-after long-term agreements the first time ahead of last year’s initial public
(LTAs) for further development phases at the offering (IPO), it was revealed that Ghawar, the
offshore Safaniyah oilfield – the world’s largest world’s largest oilfield, was producing 3.7mn
offshore field. bpd, against the long-held industry assumption
Aramco’s LTA pool comprises: Italy’s Saipem; of 5mn+ bpd.
McDermott of the US; a consortium of India’s According to the LTA source, the Safaniyah
L&T and UK-based Subsea 7; US firm Dynamic tender is understood to cover engineering, pro-
Industries; a consortium of UAE-based Lamprell curement, construction and installation (EPCI)
and Dutch company Royal Boskalis Westmin- of a production deck module (PDM) and two sli-
ster; the UAE’s National Petroleum Construc- pover jackets, with other offshore infrastructure
tion Co. (NPCC); Sapura Energy of Malaysia; and maintenance work also part of the project.
a consortium of TechnipFMC and Malaysia’s As part of wide-ranging efforts to minimise
MMHE; China Offshore Oil Engineering Co. the business impact of COVID-19, Aramco
and South Korea’s Hyundai Heavy Industries. delayed by six months the Marjan and Berri
Speaking to Upstream last week, a source at crude increment programmes during Q2; pro-
one of the LTA contractors said: “We have just jects that are set to more than double oil pro-
received the tender documents and bids are duction capacity from the assets to a combined
likely to be submitted on 13 December.” An 1.35mn bpd at a cost of around $18bn.
award is expected to be made in Q1 2020. These developments are also expected to
Safaniyah, which holds an estimated 37bn result in the production of up to 2.5bn cubic feet
barrels of oil, was one of 10 fields that exceeded (71mn cubic metres) per day of associated gas,
Aramco’s so-called maximum sustainable capac- which will be piped to the Berri gas plant. How-
ity (MSC) during the oil price war with Russia ever, given that oil demand remains depressed,
earlier this year, allowing total Saudi produc- it is understood that the projects may be further
tion to set a single-day oil production record delayed, perhaps until Q2 2021.™

P12 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 46 18•November•2020