KHOBAR, Saudi Arabia, Aug 16 (Reuters) - Saudi Aramco
IPO-ARMO.SE has received bids from international engineering
firms to expand the Hawiyah gas plant, industry sources said on
Wednesday as the state oil giant continues spending to expand
its core business.
The companies that submitted their proposals on Sunday are:
South Korean Samsung Engineering 028050.KS , Spain's Tecnicas
Reunidas TRE.MC , Taiwan's CTCI 9933.TW , Italy's Saipem
SPMI.MI , Britain's Petrofac PFC.L , India's Larsen & Toubro
(L&T) LART.NS .
South Korea's Hyundai Engineering 000720.KS and Hyundai
Development Co Engineering & Construction (HDEC) 012630.KS bid
together as a consortium.
Saudi Aramco does not comment on rumour or speculation, it
said of the report.
Hyundai declined to comment. Tecnicas Reunidas was not
available for comment.
L&T and Samsung Engineering confirmed to Reuters they bid
for the project.
Aramco plans to expand the processing capacity at Hawiyah by
1.3 billion standard cubic feet per day (scfd). The Hawiyah gas
plant currently processes 2.5 billion scfd of gas. urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL5N1F96K3
Hawiyah is part of Ghawar, the world's largest onshore
oilfield.
Raising gas production is key to Saudi Arabia's plan to
diversify its energy mix by cutting the use of crude oil and
liquids for power generation while allocating more gas to other
industries it aims to develop.
Despite falling oil prices, Saudi Aramco is pushing ahead
with oil and gas projects that it has highlighted as a priority
for the long term to keep the world well supplied with oil while
meeting gas demand domestically.
It plans to nearly double gas production to 23 billion
standard cubic feet a day in the next decade. urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL5N16G4X7
Its CEO Amin Nasser said last month the firm plans to invest
more than $300 billion over the coming decade to reinforce its
pre-eminent position in oil, maintain spare oil production
capacity, and pursue a large exploration and production program
centering on conventional and unconventional gas resources.
But apart from those targets, Aramco also aims to enhance
its long-term revenues by building a diversified growth platform
and through international gas opportunities, it said last week
in a statement in its internal publication, the Arabian Sun.
(Reporting by Reem Shamseddine, Promit Mukherjee in MUMBAI,
Yuna Park in Seoul, Robert Hetz in Madrid; Editing by Adrian
Croft)
((Reem.Shamseddine@thomsonreuters.com; +966503335202; Reuters
Messaging: reem.shamseddine.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))
Keywords: ARAMCO HAWIYAH/