Saudi Aramco has released the tenders for five engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contracts at its planned $3bn expansion of its Khurais oil field.

MEED reported in April that Aramco was prequalifying contractors for the scheme and that several packages were planned for the project. The deadline for both technical and commercial submissions is 5 August.

The released packages are:

• Central processing facilities expansion
• Seawater pipeline
• Mazlij-Abu Jifan pipeline
• Offsites and utilities
• Site preparation

The largest package by some margin is the expansion of central processing facilities. The budget is expected to be $1.5bn-$2bn and has attracted interest from several international contractors including:

• Daelim Industrial (South Korea)
• Foster Wheeler Milan (Italy)
• GS Engineering & Construction (South Korea)
• Hyundai Engineering & Construction (South Korea)
• JGC Corporation (Japan)
• Saipem (Italy)
• Tecnicas Reunidas (Spain)

Not all of these contractors are bidding on the other packages with specialist pipeline contractors, as well as several local companies expected to compete for much of the rest of the work.

The US’ Foster Wheeler is carrying out the front-end engineering and design (feed) for the scheme.

Aramco plans to add 300,000 barrels a day (b/d) to the field’s current capacity of 1.2 million b/d. Khurais is located adjacent to the Ghawar oil field, one of the world’s largest, in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia. It began operations in 2009 and produces 1.2 million b/d of light Arabian crude, 320 million cubic feet a day (cf/d) of gas and 80,000 b/d of natural gas liquids (NGLs).

The expansion at Khurais, as well as the planned increase of 250,000 b/d at the Shaybah field in the Empty Quarter, will ease production at other oil fields and will not increase the kingdom’s 12.5-million-b/d capacity.

Khurais has not been operational for long compared with some of the adjacent oilfields and Aramco believes the incremental increase in capacity is preferable to overproducing from more mature fields or investing in greenfield developments at new assets.

Saudi Arabia is forecast to produce about 9.5 million b/d of crude oil in 2014.