Saudi Aramco is planning to release the tender for the engineering, procurement and construction contracts for the $700m-$1bn Clean Transportation Fuels Project (CTFP) at its Riyadh refinery.

The tenders will be released by the end of June for the scheme which is part of Aramco’s plan to reduce the sulphur content in the gasoline and diesel it produces.

MEED reported in July 2011 that the US’ FosterWheeler had been awarded the front-end engineering and design (feed) for the project. The work was carried out in-kingdom at Al-Khobar in the Eastern province alongside FosterWheeler’s local partners local A al-Saihati, A Fattani & O al-Othman Consulting Engineering Company (Sofcon).

“This is a brownfield project and will have all of the problems that come with that, but with the budget maybe reaching $1bn, I am sure there will be no shortage of bidders,” sayd a contracting source based in Saudi Arabia.    

The scope of works includes new isomerisation, naphtha splitting and sulphur guard-bed units, as well as a diesel hydrotreater reactors. Other work includes the debottlenecking of the hydrocracker and gas concentration units, and replacement of crude and vacuum distillation tower internals.

Saudi Aramco has initiated a number of similar clean fuels schemes at both its domestic wholly owned and joint venture refineries, including its facilities at Ras Tanura, Yanbu, and Rabigh.