Tendering kicks off on Nuayyim oilfield development

23 June 2006
Saudi Aramco has issued for tender the first package on the Nuayyim oilfield development project, inviting 13 companies to submit bids by 29 July for the pipeline contract. A second larger package, covering a new gas-oil separation plant (GOSP), is expected to be issued for bid by the end of June. The estimated $700 million-1,000 million Nuayyim development will have capacity to produce 100,000 barrels a day (b/d) of Arabian Super Light crude by late 2008 (MEED 21:4:06).

The prequalifiers for the pipeline package are Lebanon's Contracting & Trading Company (CAT), Tekfen of Turkey, the Netherlands' Suedrohrbau, Italy's Saipem, Cyprus-based Joannou & Paraskevaides (J&P Overseas) and Metal Services for Trading & Contracting Company, RH al-Marri Establishment (RHM), Faysal M Qahtani Establishment (FMQ), Tamimi Construction, Arab Company for Projects & Maintenance, Mohammed al-Qawari, Al-Robaya Contracting and Bin Quraiyan Contracting, all local. Aramco will supply the line pipe.

The scope of works on the lump-sum turnkey contract (LSTK) covers the installation of: a 16-inch-diameter, 148-kilometre-long associated gas pipeline from the Nuayyim GOSP to the Ghazal remote header A; a new 18-inch-diameter crude oil pipeline from the Nuayyim GOSP to pumping station 3 on the east-west main oil line; and a 12-inch water injection pipeline.

The contract also entails the upgrade and modification of an existing 20-inch crude oil pipeline and the installation of receivers and launchers. A contract award is due in November.

International contractors, with their in-kingdom partners, submitted prequalifications in late April for the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract to build the 100,000-b/d GOSP, a gas gathering and compression complex, a gas dehydration unit and water injection facilities. The contract will also include the revamp of the existing crude and gas pipelines and pumping stations.

A team of Australia's Clough Group with Houston-based S&B Engineers & Constructors and local firms Al-Bilad and Zuhair Fayez Partnership Consultants has prepared the front-end engineering and design (FEED) package.

Located southwest of the giant Ghawar field, Nuayyim is estimated to have reserves of 250 million barrels. The field was brought into production in early 1997, but the facilities were subsequently mothballed. Production from the fields is linked to a central GOSP at Hawtah, with a capacity of at least 300,000 b/d.

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