JEDDAH: Saudi Arabian Oil Co. is close to awarding two contracts as part of its estimated $6.9 billion Shaybah and Wasit gas development schemes as the world's biggest oil company seeks to boost natural gas output to meet rapidly rising domestic demand, its top executive said Wednesday. Khalid Al Falih, chief executive officer of Saudi Aramco, said contracts for its Shaybah natural gas liquids, or NGL, plant are due to be awarded early next year. “Our NGL recovery plant in Shaybah will be awarded in the first quarter of 2011 and that will be on stream by late 2014,” Al Falih said, speaking on the sidelines of the Gulf Petrochemical and Chemicals Association forum in Dubai. The Shaybah NGL project involves the installation of a natural gas liquids recovery facility, the de-bottlenecking of existing gas-oil separation facilities and the installation of facilities at the Berri gas plant to handle the natural gas liquids from the recovery facility. Houston-based KBR Inc. (KBR) last year won the contract to provide engineering and project management services on the Shaybah NGL project. Contract awards are also nearing on the Wasit gas development project, which involves building facilities for the processing and production of up to 2.5 billion cubic feet a day of natural gas from the Aribiyah and Hasbah offshore gas fields, Al Falih said. “The big plant that we will be awarding contracts for is Wasit, where gas discovered two years ago in Aribiyah and Hasbah will be processed. It will have a capacity of 2.5 billion standard cubic feet per day and be completed in 2014,” he added without saying when the contracts would be awarded. Montreal-based SNC-Lavalin Group Inc. (SNCAF) is carrying out engineering and project management services on the Wasit scheme. Together, the two gas projects are worth about $6.9 billion. The projects are part of wider plans by Aramco to develop the Middle East largest economy's gas resources, demand for which has soared in recent years due to increased utilization in firing power and water desalination plants, and the production of petrochemicals among other industries. “We have major gas developments well underway - the Khursaniya gas plant with a capacity of 1 billion standard cubic feet is already on stream. The Karan gas plant with a capacity of 1.8 billion standard cubic feet per day is on schedule, it will be fully on stream in 2013,” Al Falih said. Natural gas escalated 3.5 percent Dec. 6 to “levels it hasn't seen for 4 months” in the New York market on forecasts for colder weather in the eastern US. The backwardation in oil persists.
