China’s Shandong Electrical Power Construction Company (Sepco) has started work on the project to convert the existing power plant at Saudi Aramco’s Shaybah oil development into a combined-cycle facility.

Sepco will convert the existing six simple-cycle gas generators to a two-block combined-cycle generation system. Each block will have a steam turbine generator to produce 240MW of power from the produced waste heat.

The conversion scheme will also include retrofitting the gas turbine generator (GTG) with six once-through steam generators along with an associated cooling and water treatment facility, a new 13.8kV substation and an expansion of the existing 230kV gas insulated switchgear substation. The Chinese contractor will also provide a new process interface building and additional systems.

The US’ GE is providing the turbine equipment for the conversion scheme.

Sepco is currently in negotiations with Saudi Aramco for the power plant package at its planned integrated gasification combined-cycle (IGCC) power project at Jizan Economic City (JEC) in the southwest of the kingdom.

Sepco was the lowest bidder for the power plant, with a bid of about $1.7bn. This was about $700m cheaper than the proposal from the second-lowest bidder, South Korea’s Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI). As a result, Aramco decided not to retender the deal after the initial bids for other packages came in too high.