Saudi Aramco has awarded a pre-front-end engineering and design (Feed) study to the US/local Sofcon for the first phase of a programme to develop gas supplies from the Shaybah field in the Rub al-Khali (Empty Quarter).
Sofcon is a joint venture between the US' Foster Wheeler and local firm Sofcon.
The contract is for six months. Aramco will tender the Feed and engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contracts in 2010 or 2011.
Under the plans, a plant with six natural gas liquids (NGL) recovery trains will be built at the site between 2014 and 2033 (MEED 3:7:09).
Gas for the facilities will come from the Shaybah field. Aramco estimates that the field holds 14.3 billion barrels of crude oil reserves and 25 trillion cubic feet of associated gas.
The field currently produces 500,000 barrels a day (b/d) of oil, but the associated gas is either flared off or reinjected into the field.
Aramco says it will build the plant in four phases to take into account the increases expected in the volume of associated gas produced from each barrel of crude from the field - known as the gas-oil ratio.
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