Japan’s JGC Corporation and South Korea’s Daewoo Engineering & Construction have emerged as the frontrunners to be awarded the two main process packages for Saudi Aramco’s $3bn Ras Tanura refinery clean fuels and aromatics project in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia.

No award decision has been made yet by Aramco. South Korea’s Daelim Industrial have also emerged as potential competition with a slightly higher bid. However, the Japanese/South Korean consortium is the favourite to win the two packages, which are:

• Naphtha and aromatics processing facilities
• Paraxylene production facilities

“Bidding has been competitive for Ras Tanura and an award for the two process packages should be made shortly,” says a Saudi-based oil and gas source.  “There has been some reluctance by contractors to bid for the utilities and offsites package, but there was a lot of interest in these two.”

MEED reported in October that JGC was the sole bidder for the utilities and offsites at Ras Tanura. Rather than make an award on a sole bid, Saudi Aramco is now going to retender the package.

“The package will be sent out to contractors again,” says the source. “I am certain it will get more interest the second time around.”

The construction phase is set to last 42 months at the Ras Tanura scheme. Start-up is expected for mid-2017.

The US’ Jacobs Engineering is carrying out the front-end engineering and design (feed) and the original scope amounted to a total of about 400,000 man-hours. This figure since has at least doubled. The initial budget of about $2bn is expected to climb to about $3bn.

The scope of works will include carrying out feed services for the inside and outside battery limits, as well as modifications to the refinery to ensure it meets environmental regulations. An aromatics cracker will also be added, which will allow for a far greater diversity of products being manufactured at the plant.

The Ras Tanura refinery is fully owned by Saudi Aramco and is the largest oil facility in Saudi Arabia, with a capacity of 550,000 barrels a day (b/d). The state-owned oil company is currently upgrading its domestic refining capacity to both lower the sulphur content of its downstream output and diversify the amount of refined products it produces.