EXCLUSIVE: Saudi contractor to deliver Aramco pipelines in third quarter of 2019

21 January 2019
Firm won three packages totalling $1.3bn for pipelines on Aramco’s Master Gas System Expansion project

The local Arkad Engineering & Construction (Arkad E&C) is on course to complete three pipeline packages it won from Saudi Aramco for the client’s Master Gas System Expansion (MGSE) project by the end of the third quarter of this year.

Arkad E&C was awarded the three contracts in January 2016, which have a combined worth of $1.3bn, to build pipelines in Saudi Arabia’s Eastern, Central and Western regions for transporting gas to key industrial and commercial hubs in those areas.

“[The three MGSE pipeline] packages are under execution. Work is going well,” a source has told MEED.

“The packages are in different stages of completion, with work on one of those nearly complete. Overall, about 75 per cent of the work has been completed so far. Mechanical completion and commissioning should be done by the end of the third quarter [of 2019],” the source said.

Arkad in July announced it had secured a loan of $54m from Arab Petroleum Investments Corporation (Apicorp) for its work on the central region pipeline package.

The MGSE project has been undertaken by Aramco to expand the capacity of its original Master Gas System, in operation since the early 1980s, to meet increasing demand for gas in the kingdom.

When commissioned, the MGSE project will be able to deliver 12.5 billion cubic feet of gas a day (cf/d) from 8.4 billion cf/d at present.

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