Prequalified companies for the PMC/FEED package have been requested to submit bids by 5 August, with a contract award expected in September. Seven US-based companies attended an 18 July job explanation meeting in London and were subsequently invited to bid for the project. The prospective bidders are: Bechtel, Fluor Daniel, Foster Wheeler, Halliburton KBR, Jacobs Engineering, Parsons Engineering Corporationand ABB Lummus Global.

The largest single project in the programme is the estimated $900 million straddle plant, which will have capacity to treat about 3,800 million cubic feet a day (cf/d). The facility will handle mainly natural gas liquids (NGL) from the Haradh and Hawiyah gas plants. Additional input is expected to come from any new non-associated gas development in the former core venture 1 concession as originally planned under the now-abandoned Saudi gas initiative.

In addition to building the straddle plant, Aramco will expand the 1,600 million-cf/d Hawiyah gas plant, which will see 800,000 cf/d of capacity added. Capacity will also be raised at the 600,000-barrel-a-day Juaymah gas fractionation plant, where a fourth train will be installed.

Aramco's decision to press ahead with the projects comes only weeks after Petroleum & Mineral Resources Minister Ali Naimi terminated core venture 1 and decided to retender the venture's upstream element separately from the mid- and downstream elements.

Aramco is also proceeding with negotiations with international oil companies on the estimated $3,000 million Rabigh scheme. Three companies have been shortlisted for further negotiations, although their identities have not been revealed. The project calls for upgrading the kingdom's largest refinery at Rabigh and adding a world-scale ethane cracker at the site. In addition, a propane dehydrogenation (PDH) unit will be installed at the refinery for the production of polypropylene. The combined project will be implemented by a 50:50 joint venture between Aramco and a selected foreign partner or partners (MEED 20:6:03).