India’s Larsen & Toubro (L&T) and South Korea’s GS Engineering & Construction (GS E&C) have emerged as the frontrunners for the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract for Saudi Aramco’s Midyan non-associated gas processing project in the Western Province of Saudi Arabia.

Saudi Aramco has had the bids under evaluation since January, which means contractors have been waiting for more than two months for news regarding the winning bidder.

“There has been a lot of guessing going on about who will win Midyan, but now it looks like it is down to two [contractors],” says an oil and gas source based in Saudi Arabia. “If I had to choose a favourite I would say Larsen & Toubro, but there has been no news of any notifications yet.”

GS E&C has won several contracts with Aramco over the past 12 months, including a major win at the PetroRabigh phase II project. L&T in comparison had a relatively quiet 2012 in the kingdom, with one award at the Sadara Chemical Company’s $20bn complex at Jubail in the Eastern province.

The project will involve the development of the non-associated onshore Midyan gas field to produce 75 million cubic feet a day (cf/d) of gas and 4,500 barrels a day (b/d) of condensate for a 20-year period.

The scope of works will include the EPC of upstream and processing facilities for the Midyan field, as well as pipelines to transport the gas and condensate. An interesting facet of the project will be that most of the facilities will be skid-mounted. This means that they can be transported to other smaller gas fields after production from Midyan is completed, which is a first for the kingdom.

The project is expected to be completed in late 2015. The Midyan field has been developed by Aramco to alleviate the burning of crude oil for power generation in the northwest of the kingdom during the summer months. The area has several small non-associated gas fields that are also expected to be exploited to provide gas for power generation.