Saudi Aramco to Begin Operations of Expanded Juaymah Gas Fractionation Plant by September 2009

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Saudi Arabia's largest integrated hydrocarbons producer, Saudi Arabian Oil Company (Saudi Aramco) (Dhahran), will commence operations of its augmented gas fractionation unit in Juaymah by September of this year. The much delayed expansion program will add 260,000 barrels per day (BBL/d) of capacity to the gas plant, taking its total processing capacity to 815,000 BBL/d. The expanded gas fractionation plant was earlier scheduled to begin operations in the first quarter of 2008 but was deferred several times because of delays in mechanical commissioning.

The total project cost is estimated to be about $370 million. Jacobs Engineering Group Incorporated (NYSE:JEC) (Pasadena, California) completed the front-end engineering and design (FEED) for the Juaymah expansion project. Tecnicas Reunidas Gulf Engineering (Dhahran) was awarded the $360 million engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract.

Saudi Aramco, which is developing the Hawiyah natural gas liquids (NGL) project and the Khursaniyah oil and gas project, is expecting an increase in the production volume of light oils, NGLs, ethane and other products from these facilities. The capacity addition of the Juaymah plant will be utilized to store and process the additional volume of these petrochemical feeds. The Hawiyah project will begin operations by August or September of this year. The Hawiyah NGL project will produce an additional 310,000 BBL/d of NGL and ethane by processing 80,000 BBL/d of condensate and 1 billion cubic feet per day of natural gas. Earlier, Saudi Aramco awarded five contracts with a combined value of $1.2 billion for the construction of one of the biggest NGL plants at the Hawiyah facility, to recover NGL and ethane from 4 billion cubic feet per day of sales gas. JGC Corporation (TYO:1963) (Tokyo, Japan) was awarded the construction contract for the tank, process control unit, three NGL trains, and other allied facilities. Snamprogetti SpA (Milan, Italy) was selected to build electrical systems, gas treatment and compression units, and other support facilities.

The Khursaniyah project, which was earlier slated to begin commercial operations by October 2007, is now expected to go live by October 2009. The Khursaniyah production facilities will process 1 billion cubic feet per day of gas from the Fadhili, Khursaniyah and Abu Hadriya oil fields, located in the eastern province, near Jubail industrial city. Snamprogetti was selected to carry out the FEED and construction activities for the Khursaniyah production facilities. The scope included the building of a gas collection and compression plant, a water injection and crude stabilization system, a gas-oil separation unit, and a wet crude handling facility to process input from the three oil fields. Technip (OTC:TKPPY) (Paris, France) and Bechtel Group Incorporated (San Francisco, California) were selected to implement the FEED and EPC contracts for the Khursaniyah gas plant.

Saudi Aramco, a state-controlled enterprise, is one of the largest oil producing companies in the world. According to the company's annual review report for 2008, Saudi Aramco added more than 9 trillion cubic feet of gas to the country's proven reserves. The proposed projects are part of Saudi Aramco's strategy to boost its gas processing capability from 9.3 billion cubic feet per day to 12.5 billion cubic feet per day. According to the Statistical Review of World Energy published by BP plc (NYSE:BP) (London, United Kingdom), Saudi Arabia had proven gas reserves of about 78.1 billion cubic meters at the end of 2008.

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