Saudi Aramco awards Hasbah gas expansion contract - sources

Ezra Holdings

16/05/2016 14:38

KHOBAR, Saudi Arabia, May 16 (Reuters) - State oil giant 
Saudi Aramco  IPO-ARMO.SE  has awarded a $1 billion-plus 
contract to India's Larsen & Toubro (L&T)  LART.NS  and  
Singapore-based Emas AMC for the expansion of the offshore 
Hasbah sour gas field, industry sources said. 
    Increasing its supply of gas is a top priority for Saudi 
Arabia. Many industrial firms have complained about a shortage 
crimping expansion plans, while the kingdom is trying to use 
more of the fuel for power generation and water desalination 
instead of burning crude oil, which it wants to export. 
    Work on the expansion scheme includes building platforms and 
pipelines, with the field's supply feeding the Fadhili gas 
plant, a $6 billion complex that will include a gas processing 
unit and sulphur recovery.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL5N10Y03J 
    Saudi Aramco declined to comment. L&T did not respond to 
emailed requests for comment, while Emas was not available for 
immediate comment. 
    It is the second major contract win for the duo in recent 
months: Emas AMC, a unit of Ezra Holdings  EZRA.SI , also teamed 
up last year with the Indian firm to secure a long-term contract 
with Aramco to work on offshore facilities.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nWNBS00ZNX 
    The expansion of Hasbah will supply 2 billion standard cubic 
feet per day (scfd) of gas to the Fadhili plant, for which 
Aramco awarded a construction contract last year. The remaining 
500 million scfd of supply for the plant will come from the 
onshore Khursaniyah field.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL5N11L28E 
    Hasbah already feeds Wasit, another major gas plant. Aramco 
said in March it had started producing natural gas from the 
offshore field ahead of peak summer demand in the world's 
largest oil exporting country.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL5N16V1QW 
    An industry source told Reuters the Wasit plant would reach 
full capacity in July of processing 2.5 billion scfd of gas. 
 
 (Reporting by Reem Shamseddine; Additional Reporting by Promit 
Mukherjee and Henning Gloystein; Editing by Mark Potter) 
 ((Reem.Shamseddine@thomsonreuters.com; +966503335202; Reuters 
Messaging: reem.shamseddine.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net)) 
 
Keywords: SAUDI ARAMCO GAS/