Jacobs was appointed the PMC contractor on 9 September, after beating off competition from five other US-based prequalifiers. They were Fluor Daniel, Foster Wheeler, Halliburton KBR, Parsons Corporationand ABB Lummus Global. Under the PMC contract, Jacobs will also provide front-end engineering and design (FEED) services for the scheme. Jacobs will carry out parts of the job from its Canadian office in Calgary, where its 2001 acquisition, the former McDermott Engineers & Constructors, is based.

The largest of the projects planned by Aramco under the programme is the estimated $1,100 million straddle plant, which will have capacity to treat about 3,800 million cubic feet a day (cf/d) of gas. The facility will mainly handle natural gas liquids (NGL) from the Haradh and Hawiyah gas plants. Additional input is expected to come from the three contract areas offered under the government's upstream gas round and located in the Rub al-Khali zone, an area that was originally designated to be developed under the gas initiative (MEED 25:7:03).

In addition to building the straddle plant, Aramco will expand the 1,600 million-cf/d Hawiyah gas plant through the addition of 800,000 cf/d of new capacity. The project is estimated at about $400 million. The third scheme calls for the addition of a fourth train at the 600,000-barrel-a-day Juaymah gas fractionation plant at a cost of about $200 million.

Jacobs is also acting as PMC for the local AH Al-Zamil Groupon the project to set up a carbon black plant at Jubail. The engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract on the estimated $50 million-60 million project is expected to be awarded before the end of the year (MEED 20:6:03).