Saudi Aramco to Award $300 Million Contract for Expansion of 13 Bulk Oil Projects

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--State-owned Saudi Arabian Oil Company (Saudi Aramco) (Dhahran, Saudi Arabia), one of the world's largest integrated oil companies, intends to award a contract worth $300 million to implement expansion plans in 13 of its bulk plants located across Saudi Arabia. The plants serve as oil distribution points for the company. The contract is expected to be awarded and signed in early August. The deadline for submitting bids was June 28, and according to reports published by the Middle East Business Intelligence Agency (Dubai, United Arab Emirates), at least 12 companies are competing for the contract.

The contract will be implemented on a lump-sum, procure-and-build basis and will include electrical, instrumentation, piping and structural work; installation of gasoline and diesel storage tanks; installation of shipping and transfer pumps; and all the associated civil works. The aim of the project is to expand the diesel, gasoline and fuel oil storage capacities of the bulk plants. The bulk plants included in the plan are the Hasa and Qatif plants located in the eastern province, the central region's Qasim and Sulayyil plants, the Turaif, Tabuk, Jouf and Duba plants in the northwest, and the Yanbu, Rabigh, Jizan and Abha plants in the southwest.

The first list of 20 pre-qualified companies included India's Dayim Punj Lloyd Construction Contracting Company Limited (Gurgaon, Haryana), Engineering for the Petroleum and Process Industries (Cairo, Egypt), JGC Corporation (TYO:1963) (Tokyo, Japan) in partnership with Chiyoda Corporation (TYO:6366) (Yokohama, Japan), M R Alkhathlan Group (Dammam, Saudi Arabia), Etec Arabia (Riyadh, Saudi Arabia), Mohammad Al-Mojil Group (SAU:1310) (Dammam), M S Al Suwaidi Industrial Services Company Limited (Al-Jubail, Saudi Arabia), Nesma Group (Jeddah, Saudi Arabia), Petrofac Limited (LSE:PFC) (Jersey, United Kingdom), Rotary Engineering (SGX:R07) (Singapore), Kentz Corporation Limited (LSE:KEZ) (Jersey), Sinopec Shanghai Petrochemical Company Limited (NYSE:SHI) (Shanghai, China), SK Engineering and Construction Company Limited (Seoul, South Korea) in partnership with ISU Engineering and Construction Company Limited (Seoul), Snamprogetti SpA (Milan, Italy), Techint (Buenos Aires, Argentina), Technip SA (OTC:TKPPY) (Paris, France), Tekfen Holding AS (ISE:TKFEN) (Istanbul, Turkey), and Tecnicas Reunidas SA (MCE:TRE) (Madrid, Spain).

Saudi Aramco annually transports and supplies about 375 million barrels of refined products such as jet fuel, gasoline, liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) and fuel oil, among several other products, to approximately 5,000 domestic bulk customers through a huge delivery network that includes 19 bulk plants, storage facilities, transportation facilities and air-fuelling units that are situated throughout the country. The company owns massive tank farms that enable it to successfully export crude oil, natural gas liquids (NGL), and refinery products through the Red Sea and the Arabian Gulf. A highly structured delivery system that covers an area of about 2 million square kilometers, which constitutes the whole nation, is connected with these storage facilities to enable reliable and timely delivery of products. Product carriers, pipelines, hauling trucks and crude oil tankers form a part of this network. The company owns and operates about 20,000 kilometers of pipeline. The major pipelines are the Saudi Arabian-Bahrain pipeline, the Trans-Arabian pipeline, and the East-West Crude Oil and NGL pipelines to Yanbu on the west coast. The Yanbu-to-Shedgum pipeline, at a length of 1,170 kilometers, is the most advanced and longest existing gas line.

Vela International Marine Limited (Dubai), Saudi Aramco's shipping subsidiary, operates a 23-tanker fleet of sophisticated very large crude carriers and ultra large crude carriers. Each ship has the capacity to carry at least 2 million barrels of crude oil. The surface transportation network includes about 2,000 trucks that move across the nation's 150,000-kilometer highway network. In order to minimize the environmental impact caused by these trucks, Saudi Aramco is making attempts to reduce the usage of trucks and construct new pipeline systems in their place.

Saudi Aramco's air-fuelling network includes 10 outlets in the eastern region, six in the western region and three in the central region of Saudi Arabia. The company sells about 16.8 million barrels of jet fuel to approximately 93 international and national airline customers. The airports at Dammam, Jeddah and Riyadh each have an air-fuelling outlet.

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