Under the accelerated schedule, contractors have been asked to submit bids for the FEED-cum-EPC contract by 29 January. The AFK project is being tendered in two packages, one covering the production facilities, the other the gas plant. All six companies that attended the Bahrain meeting are expected to participate in the tender. They are: Bechtel, Fluor Danieland Parsons International, all US-based, Italy's Snamprogetti, Canada's SNC Lavalinand Paris-based Technip.

Package one of the programme - the Khursaniyah producing facilities - covers the construction of a central gas-oil separation plant (GOSP), wet crude handling facilities to process 500,000 barrels a day (b/d) of Arabian light crude from the AFK fields, 250 million-cubic-feet-a-day (cf/d) gas gathering compression facilities, a co-generation plant, crude-to-stabilisation facilities, a water injection plant, upstream pipelines and manifolds systems.

Package two calls for the construction of a 1,000 million-cf/d gas plant comprising gas treatment and sulphur recovery units, related facilities and pipelines.

The launch of the AFK programme follows the full commissioning of the Abu Safah/Qatif oil field development in December, which has added an estimated 800,000 b/d of oil capacity, increased existing gas handling capacity at the Berri gas plant and expanded the pipeline network in the Eastern Province. Aramco's last full field development was the onshore Shaybah field, which came on stream in 1998.

Petroleum & Mineral Resources Minister Ali Naimi in December said that the kingdom's plans for the oil sector called for sustainable oil production capacity to be raised to 12.5 million b/d from the existing level of about 10.5 million b/d.

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