Saudi Aramco is on the verge of replacing the US’ Foster Wheeler with Australia’s WorleyParsons in its general engineering services plus (GES plus) programme.

The oil major initially shortlisted seven contractors for the GES plus contract, but that was reduced to five: the US’ Jacobs Engineering, KBR, Mustang Engineering and Foster Wheeler, as well as Canada’s SNC Lavalin. The two contractors that missed out were WorleyParsons and France’s Technip.

“This is a very surprising move for Aramco because many people believed that WorleyParsons was no longer going to be considered [for the GES plus],” says an oil and gas source based in Saudi Arabia. “A deal has not been signed yet and Foster Wheeler will fight for some sort of compromise, but I think that Aramco only wants five contractors on the programme.”

Every signatory of the GES plus has to form partnerships with local engineering companies to ensure Saudi nationals are gaining the requisite experience. They will then be used as preferred bidders to provide Aramco with design, engineering and project management services across the whole spectrum of the hydrocarbons sector.  

Foster Wheeler was one of the first two signatories of the GES plus and signed the initial deal with Aramco in February 2011. It has formed a consortium with the local A al-Saihati, A Fattani & O al-Othman Consulting Engineering Company (Sofcon) and Saudi Consolidated Engineering Company for Engineering Consultancy.

However, market sources indicate that it has not yet completed the registration process required under the terms of the GES plus deal. This has led to WorleyParsons being given another opportunity to secure a deal with Aramco.  

According to its 2012 annual report, WorleyParsons now fully owns its local Saudi Arabian partner Petrocon. This means it meets Aramco’s criteria for local engineering capabilities under the GES plus programme.

“WorleyParsons is in a position to step right into the GES plus,” says a contracting source based in the GCC. “Only one or two other companies have this local capability and are not in the GES plus already. [The US’] Fluor is the only other example I can think of.”  

MEED reported in October that Aramco is speeding up its localisation initiatives on all fronts and had told international engineering, procurement and construction contractors (EPC) that they had to be fully in-kingdom EPC compliant by 2013.

Saudi Aramco, WorleyParsons and Foster Wheeler were not available for comment when contacted by MEED.