Saudi Aramco has extended the deadline for bids for the main packages on its estimated $4.5bn project to expand gas processing capacity at Haradh and Hawiyah.

The project will build new gas compression plants at Haradh and expand the gas plant at Hawiyah. The proposed facilities will have the capacity to process more than 1 billion cubic feet a day (cf/d) of additional gas produced at the Ghawar onshore oil field – the largest in the world.

Aramco has extended the deadline for bids on the four main engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) packages for the processing plants to 1 August from a previous cut-off date of 3 July, according to information gathered by regional projects tracker MEED Projects.

The processing plant packages include the following:

• Hawiyah Gas Plant Expansion (estimated budget: $1bn-$1.3bn)
• North Haradh Compression Plants (estimated budget: $1bn-$1.2bn)
• Satellite Haradh Compression Plants (estimated budget: $1bn-$1.2bn)
• South Haradh Compression Plants (estimated budget: $1bn-$1.2bn)

Aramco has tendered a smaller fifth package on the project covering free flow pipelines, setting a bid deadline of 16 July.

The front-end engineering and design (feed) study was carried out by Australia-based WorleyParsons.