Saudi Aramco has signed a $2bn contract with Italy’s Saipem for the engineering, procurement and construction of the main processing facilities at its onshore Khurais oil field expansion in Saudi Arabia.

MEED reported in mid-October that Saipem had won the deal and that a contract would be signed by the end of October. The contract will be worth about $1.6bn to Saipem after novation of long-lead items.

Aramco plans to add 300,000 barrels a day (b/d) to the field’s current capacity of 1.2 million b/d. Khurais is located adjacent to the Ghawar oil field, one of the world’s largest, in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia. It began operations in 2009 and produces 1.2 million b/d of light Arabian crude, 320 million cubic feet a day (cf/d) of gas and 80,000 b/d of natural gas liquids (NGLs).

The expansion at Khurais, as well as the planned increase of 250,000 b/d at the Shaybah field in the Empty Quarter, will ease production at other oil fields and will not increase the kingdom’s 12.5 million b/d capacity.