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Aramco issues tender for Karan offshore field

3 April 2024

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Saudi Aramco has issued a tender to its Long-Term Agreement (LTA) pool of contractors involving upgrading infrastructure at the Karan offshore oil and gas field in Saudi Arabia.

The tender is number 144 on Aramco’s Contracts Release and Purchase Order (CRPO) system and is estimated to be worth $50m, according to sources.

Aramco issued the CRPO 144 tender on 2 April, and LTA entities have been set a deadline of 28 April for submitting bids, sources told MEED.

The scope of work on CRPO 144 entails engineering, procurement, construction and installation of a single jacket at the Karan field, along with associated units.

The work scope on CRPO 144 is said to have been a portion of CRPO 123, for which Aramco received bids in January 2023, and later cancelled the tendering process.

Aramco then retendered the scope of work on CRPO 123 in the form of a new tender, CRPO 129, last year. It eventually cancelled the tendering process for CRPO 129 after receiving bids in the second quarter of the year.

Aramco’s LTA pool of offshore service providers comprises the following entities:

  • Saipem (Italy)
  • McDermott International (US)
  • Larsen & Toubro Hydrocarbon Engineering (India) / Subsea 7 (UK)
  • Dynamic Industries (US)
  • National Petroleum Construction Company (UAE)
  • Lamprell (UAE/Saudi Arabia)
  • Sapura Energy (Malaysia)
  • Technip Energies (France) / MMHE (Malaysia)
  • China Offshore Oil Engineering Company (China)
  • Hyundai Heavy Industries (South Korea)

MEED recently reported that Aramco had received bids from LTA contractors for five new offshore oil and gas field upgrade tenders issued in recent weeks.

LTA entities submitted bids in mid-March for CRPOs 131, 132, 139, 142 and 143, according to sources.

Offshore LTA contractors are also preparing to submit bids in April for another major tender, CRPO 130, which involves the upgrade of infrastructure at the Marjan oil and gas field.

Bidding activity for these eight new tenders is taking place against the backdrop of Aramco’s decision to shelve more than a dozen offshore oil field upgrade tenders issued to its LTA pool of contractors last year.

The decision followed a Saudi Energy Ministry directive on 30 January for Aramco to abandon its campaign to expand oil production spare capacity from 12 million barrels a day (b/d) to 13 million b/d by 2027.

Aramco cancelled the tendering process for at least 15 CRPO jobs involving the engineering, procurement, construction and installation of key structures at major offshore oil fields, MEED previously reported.

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Indrajit Sen

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