The local Abdulali Al-Ajmi Company (Al-Ajmi) has started preparing the site for the Wasit gas onshore facilities in Saudi Arabia.

Work is now under way after the company was awarded the contract by Saudi Aramco, says a source close to the project.

“Work is progressing and the site will be ready for the [onshore] processing facilities by September [2011],” says the source. “Al-Ajmi has some experience working with Aramco on these types of projects.”

The scope of works includes surveys on the 4-square-kilometre site, followed by land clearance and levelling works, and the construction of 25 kilometres of asphalt roads along with 12km of fences. It also covers the construction of an evaporation pond and a series of wells.

According to Al-Ajmi’s website the value of the contract is about $74m.

Under the estimated $3bn Wasit scheme, Aramco wants to produce 2.5 billion cubic feet a day (cf/d) of sulphur-rich gas from the offshore Arabiyah and Hasbah fields before transporting it to a central processing facility at Wasit.

The tenders for the onshore and offshore engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contracts are now under evaluation with a decision expected by the end of January 2011 at the latest (MEED 3:12:10).