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Aramco allows more time for carbon capture PMC bids

30 June 2025

Saudi Aramco has allowed engineering firms additional time to prepare proposals for a tender for project management consultancy (PMC) services for the first phase of its Accelerated Carbon Capture and Sequestration (ACCS) project.

The project aims to develop a large-scale carbon capture and storage (CCS) hub in Jubail Industrial City in Saudi Arabia’s Eastern Province that will have the capacity to store and sequester up to 9 million metric tonnes a year (t/y) of carbon dioxide (CO2).

Aramco has extended the deadline for firms to submit bids for the PMC tender from 30 June to 6 July, sources told MEED.

MEED recently reported that Aramco issued the PMC tender earlier in June. The appointed project management consultant will oversee engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) works on the first phase of the ACCS project, according to sources.

MEED reported in February that Larsen & Toubro Energy Hydrocarbon (LTEH), a subsidiary of India’s Larsen & Toubro Group, had been picked by Aramco to perform EPC work on the project. The value of the project’s main EPC contract is estimated to be about $1.5bn, sources said.

Following this, Al-Khobar-based contractor Denys Arabia won a contract for the EPC scope of work on the main pipeline network.

Separately, Saudi Steel Pipe Company announced that its subsidiary, Global Pipe Company, had won an order from Aramco for the supply of longitudinal submerged arc welding pipes for the ACCS project’s first phase. The value of the contract is SR910m ($243m) and its duration is 15 months, Saudi Steel Pipe Company said in a filing with the Saudi Stock Exchange (Tadawul) on 10 February.

Aramco signed a shareholders’ agreement in December with Germany-headquartered Linde and US-based oil field services provider SLB for the first phase of the ACCS project.

Under the agreement, Aramco took control of a 60% equity interest in the planned CCS hub in Jubail, with Linde and SLB taking 20% stakes each. In early 2023, MEED reported that Aramco had brought on board SLB (formerly Schlumberger) and Linde, the world’s largest industrial gas producer, as partners for phase one of the ACCS.

Construction of the planned CCS hub in Jubail is anticipated to be completed by the end of 2027. “Later phases are expected to further expand its capacity,” Aramco said in December.

UK-headquartered Wood Group has performed the front-end engineering and design works on the first phase of the ACCS scheme, MEED previously reported.

Japan’s Mizuho is understood to be the financial advisor for the ACCS scheme.

Aramco ACCS objectives

The objective of the ACCS scheme, which is expected to have nine phases in total, is to capture CO2 from Aramco’s northern gas plants of Wasit, Fadhili and Khursaniyah, as well as from the operations of its subsidiary Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (Sabic) and Saudi industrial gases provider Air Products Qudra.

The ACCS project’s first phase is expected to have a capacity of about 9 million t/y, with the collection pipeline system designed to support a future expansion of the scheme.

The main facility to be built in Jubail as part of the first phase of the ACCS will capture streams from the acid gas enrichment units of the Wasit, Fadhili and Khursaniyah plants. The CO2 will be compressed, dried and fed into the collection pipeline system.

The network will also absorb additional CO2 volumes from Sabic and Air Products Qudra after the initial compression and drying of the CO2 discharge at their respective facilities.

The combined gaseous CO2 stream will then be compressed at the centralised compression facility, located at Fadhili, into dense-phase CO2 and sent into the main pipeline for sequestration.

The main pipeline network will transport the CO2 about 240 kilometres away for injection into the Jaham-Duhul-Maqlah saline aquifer.

The scope of work on the ACCS project’s first phase finishes at the injection well control skids. Injection wells and other associated units are outside the scope of the ACCS project, Aramco said in the solicitation of interest document released in January 2023.

Aramco sustainability measures

Aramco is making its core operations more environmentally friendly to meet its target of attaining net-zero carbon emissions by 2050, and in line with Saudi Arabia’s net-zero emissions by 2060 target.

“The [ACCS] project will support the company’s ambition to achieve net-zero Scope 1 and Scope 2 greenhouse gas emissions across its wholly-owned operated assets by 2050,” Aramco said in its December statement.

Unlike its international counterparts, Aramco does not face significant pressure from climate activists and investors to slash CO2 and greenhouse gas emissions and ramp up efforts to tackle climate change.

However, as the main engine of Saudi Arabia’s economy, Aramco is crucial in helping the kingdom achieve its environmental commitments.

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Indrajit Sen

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