Saudi Aramco CEO Amin Nasser says the state-owned oil company is pressing ahead with the expansion of the Khurais oil field, confirming a report by MEED in 2015.

Nasser told reporters at a conference in Al-Ahsa, eastern Saudi Arabia, that the project is on track to be completed in 2018, according to Bloomberg news agency.

MEED reported in November 2015 that the $3bn Khurais oil field expansion had been revived. The construction phase was later started after Aramco requested contractors to speed up the project’s execution.

Aramco is carrying out the project to add 300,000 barrels a day (b/d) of oil to the field’s current capacity of 1.2 million b/d.

Italy’s Saipem is carrying out the project’s largest engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract on the central processing facilities, worth an estimated $3bn.

Saudi Arabia-based oil and gas sources told MEED in 2015 that Aramco was weighing up whether to proceed with the project due to cost concerns.

“Until now all of our downstream and upstream projects are continuous,” Nasser told reporters. “No project in our programmes got cancelled.”

Aramco is also studying the possible expansion of the 550,000 b/d Ras Tanura oil refinery, he added.

The state oil company recently invited firms to bid for the EPC packages on the Ras Tanura refinery Clean Fuels Project.