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Frontrunners emerge for 11 Aramco offshore tenders

29 January 2023

Saudi Aramco is understood to be preparing to award 11 offshore engineering, procurement, construction and installation (EPCI) contracts, according to sources.

Long-Term Agreement (LTA) contractors submitted bids for the Contracts Release and Purchase Order (CRPO) contracts in November and December last year, MEED earlier reported.

The following LTA entities have emerged as frontrunners for the following orders:

  • CRPO 97 – National Petroleum Construction Company (NPCC) [UAE]
  • CRPO 98 – Larsen & Toubro Energy Hydrocarbon (LTEH) [India] / Subsea 7 [UK]
  • CRPO 99 – Hyundai Heavy Industries [South Korea]
  • CRPO 100 – NPCC
  • CRPO 101 – McDermott [US]
  • CRPO 117 – L&THE/Subsea7
  • CRPO 118 – Saipem [Italy]
  • CRPO 119 – Saipem
  • CRPO 120 – Saipem
  • CRPO 121 – L&THE/Subsea7
  • CRPO 122 – NPCC

Sources say that each of the winning contractors could win about $1bn worth of work. Aramco declined to comment on MEED’s request for information on the CRPO tenders.

Offshore spending

Among the contracts to be awarded are four orders that cover the upgrade of tie-in platforms and installation of production deck modules, jackets, pipelines and subsea cables at the Zuluf offshore hydrocarbons development.

CRPOs 98-101 represent the next big development phase of the Zuluf oil and gas field. They follow the award of five offshore EPCI packages in December 2021, worth about $4.5bn, and two main onshore packages in May 2022, estimated to be worth about $3.5bn, for the first phase of the Zuluf increment project.

ALSO READ: Aramco paces ahead with upstream projects

The EPCI scope of work on the 11 CRPO contracts is:

  • CRPO 97 – Installation of structures at Abu Safah:
    • Two jackets at Abu Safah
    • Three production deck modules (PDMs)
    • Pipeline replacement
    • Associated facilities

       
  • CRPO 98 – Upgrade of AM crude platforms at Zuluf tie-in platform (ZTP) 7:
    • Upgrade of five PDMs
    • Upgrades of four Zuluf tie-ins
    • Demolition works
    • Installation of slipover jackets
    • Laying of associated subsea pipelines and cables

       
  • CRPO 99 – Upgrade and installations at ZTP 5:
    • Upgrade of three PDMs
    • Installation of a slipover PDM
    • Installation of a new PDM
    • Upgrade of ZTP 5

       
  • CRPO 100 – Upgrade and installations at ZTP 3:
    • Upgrade of two PDMs
    • Installation of seven slipover PDMs
    • Installation of two 16-well PDMs
    • Installation of auxiliary platforms
    • Upgrade of ZTP 3

       
  • CRPO 101 – Supply of structures at Zuluf:
    • Provision of 22 15 kilovolt (kV) cables/pipelines covering a total length of 112 kilometres (km)
    • Provision of eight cables/pipelines covering a total length of 23km

       
  • CRPO 117 – Installation of structures at Marjan:
    • Three PDMs and pipeline at Marjan tie-in platform

       
  • CRPO 118 – Installation of structures at Marjan:
    • Three PDMs and pipeline at Marjan field development

       
  • CRPO 119 – Installation of structures at Marjan:
    • Four PDMs and pipeline at Marjan field development

       
  • CRPO 122 – Installation of structures at Safaniya:
    • Thirteen jackets at Safaniya

       
  • CRPO 120 – Installation of structures at Hasbah:
    • One PDM and pipeline at Hasbah field development

       
  • CRPO 121 – Installation of structures at Manifa:
    • Twelve jackets at Manifa

       
  • CRPO 122 – Installation of structures at Safaniya:
    • Thirteen jackets at Safaniya

High oil and gas prices significantly boosted Aramco’s profitability in 2022, resulting in considerable shareholder dividends. Robust financial performance has therefore led Aramco to kickstart a period of increased capital expenditure on upstream projects.

Both Saudi Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman and Aramco’s president and CEO Amin Nasser have emphasised the state enterprise’s mandate to raise its oil production capacity to 13 million barrels a day by 2027, and increase gas production by 50 per cent by the end of this decade.

Aramco has awarded key EPC projects in the past two years to achieve these goals and has been issuing tenders for strategic greenfield and brownfield works, particularly since the third quarter of 2022.

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Indrajit Sen

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