Saudi Aramco is planning to tender the first offshore package of its Marjan Field Development before the end of February, according to industry sources.

All the details of the scope and the budget for the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract are yet to be finalised.

“Aramco has not yet finished putting this all together,” said one source. “Changes are continually being made.”

As things stand it is expected to be for three water injection platforms including three jackets and three decks as well as installation and hook ups.

Though the budget has not been finalised industry sources are expecting it to be within the range of $500-750m.

This tender is expected to be the first offshore EPC contract to be issued as part of the Marjan Field Development megaproject, which is estimated to be worth $3.8bn.

“We are expecting Aramco to tender major packages all through the year as part of this project,” said one source.

In September last year, MEED reported that the Marjan frield had been highlighted to contractors by Aramco as a project that it wanted to make rapid progress on.

UK-based Amec Foster Wheeler, which was acquired by Wood last year, was awarded the front-end engineering and design (feed) contract for the expansion at Marjan field in May 2017.

The project is part of a larger programme to upgrade and expand production facilties across its offshore fields. It will include a 300,000 barrel-a-day gas/oil separation train, a world-scale greenfield gas processing plant, a cogeneration facility and modifications to an existing facility to add natural gas liquids fractionation capacity.

Marjan is estimated to have the capacity to produce about 500,000 b/d of crude based on current installed production facilities.

The engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) tenders will be available to Aramco’s Long-Term Agreement (LTA) companies, which have exclusive rights to bid on several offshore projects.