meed-logo

line1 line2 line3
SIGN IN / REGISTER

Saudi downstream programmes gain traction

13 September 2024

Progress on a programme as mammoth as Saudi Aramco’s liquids-to-chemicals scheme is expected to be measured and laboured. The programme’s central ambition is to derive greater economic value from every barrel of crude produced in the kingdom by converting 4 million barrels a day (b/d) of Aramco’s oil production into high-value petrochemicals and chemicals feedstocks by 2030.

Aramco and its subsidiary, Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (Sabic) – the two primary stakeholders of the liquids-to-chemicals programme – are still in the initial phase and are giving shape to various projects and components.

Considering that the operators are “still working out” how best to attain the liquids-to-chemicals conversion goal from across their global portfolio, achieving “cohesion and synergies” with the consultants they have appointed during the conceptualisation phase is proving to be a “sticking point”, several sources told MEED.

While day-to-day progress might appear sluggish, Amin Nasser, Aramco’s president and CEO, assured earlier in the year that the Saudi energy giant is on track to achieve its crude oil-to-chemicals (COTC) conversion goal by 2030.

“We are on track to achieve our target of 4 million b/d liquids-to-chemicals [conversion capacity] by 2030,” Nasser said during an online press conference held on 30 May to discuss Aramco’s secondary shares offering.

“We’re slightly above 2 million b/d liquids-to-chemicals [output], so progressing very well in our programme,” he said in response to a question by MEED during the media briefing.

Liquids-to-chemicals programme

When completed, the liquids-to-chemicals programme will make Saudi Arabia one of the world’s largest petrochemicals producers. Aramco, along with Sabic, have been tasked with establishing 10-11 large mixed-feed crackers by 2030. These petrochemicals crackers, which include greenfield developments and expansions of existing facilities, will be built both in Saudi Arabia and in overseas markets.

The Saudi energy giant is said to have been allocated a total capital expenditure budget of up to $100bn for projects as part of this campaign, MEED has previously reported.

Aramco has divided its liquids-to-chemicals programme in Saudi Arabia into four main projects. It took a major step forward in September last year by appointing project management consultants (PMC) for the different segments of the scheme.

Aramco selected US firm KBR, France’s Technip Energies, UK-based Wood Group and Australia-headquartered Worley to provide PMC services for the four projects, which include: 

  • Project East (PMC 1) – involves converting the Saudi Aramco Jubail Refinery Company (Sasref) complex in Jubail into an integrated refinery and petrochemicals complex by adding a mixed-feed cracker. The project also involves building an ethane cracker that will draw feedstock from the Sasref refinery. China’s Rongsheng Petrochemical Company recently signed a preliminary agreement with Aramco to potentially become a 50% investor in this project.
  • Project West (PMC 2) – involves converting the Yanbu Aramco Sinopec Refining Company (Yasref) complex in Yanbu into an integrated refinery and petrochemicals complex by adding a mixed-feed cracker. Aramco and state-owned China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation (Sinopec) signed a memorandum of understanding in October for joint investment in the project, known as the Yanbu Refinery+ project.
  • Project X (PMC 3) – involves converting the Saudi Aramco Mobil Refinery Company (Samref) complex in Yanbu into an integrated refinery and petrochemicals complex by building a mixed-feed cracker. 
  • Project RTC (PMC 4) – involves establishing a COTC complex in Ras Al-Khair in the Eastern Province. Sabic is a partner in the Ras Al-Khair COTC project.

Aramco has initiated a separate tendering exercise to provide front-end engineering and design (feed) services on the projects in the future. Feed contracts are scheduled to be awarded in 2024, while the main EPC contracts are due for award in 2025.

Ramping up gas processing capacity

To process incremental volumes of gas entering the grid due to Aramco spiking its conventional and unconventional gas production, the state enterprise has already spent $16.5bn on gas processing and transportation projects this year.

In April, Aramco awarded $7.7bn in EPC contracts for a project to expand the Fadhili gas plant in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia. The project is expected to increase the plant’s processing capacity from 2.5 billion cubic feet a day (cf/d) to up to 4 billion cf/d.

On 30 June, Aramco awarded 15 lump-sum turnkey contracts for the third expansion phase of the Master Gas System (MGS-3), worth $8.8bn. Aramco has divided EPC works on the MGS-3 project into 17 packages. The first two packages involve upgrading existing gas compression systems and installing new gas compressors. The 15 other packages relate to laying gas transport pipelines at various locations in the kingdom.

The expansion will increase the size of the network and raise its total capacity by an additional 3.15 billion cf/d by 2028 through installing about 4,000 kilometres of pipelines and 17 new gas compression trains.

Going forward, Aramco is expected to pursue other projects this year to boost the gas processing potential of its key plants, such as Haradh, Shedgum and Uthmaniya.

Aramco has already received interest from contractors for the main tender for a project to expand the Haradh Gas Oil Separation Plant 3 (GOSP 3). The state enterprise is in the feed stage of a separate project to expand the Shedgum and Uthmaniya plants, with the main EPC tender expected to be issued by the end of the year.

https://image.digitalinsightresearch.in/uploads/NewsArticle/12521278/main.gif
Indrajit Sen

Register for MEED's guest program now to access this article.

Click here to register
Exclusive from Meed
Related Articles
  • Egypt firm wins South Med desalination design contract

    8 June 2026

    Cairo-headquartered Engineering Experience Group (EEG) has won a design and engineering services contract for the planned South Med seawater reverse osmosis desalination plant in Al-Dabaa, Egypt.

    The South Med project will have a production capacity of 160,000 cubic metres a day.

    Located in Egypt’s Matrouh governorate on the Mediterranean coast, it is being developed for the Engineering Authority of the Armed Forces’ Water Management Department.

    Local firm Elsewedy Electric Infrastructure previously announced it was the main engineering, procurement and construction contractor for the project.

    In a company publication, Elsewedy indicated that project activities are expected to run from 2026 to 2028, suggesting commercial operations could begin around 2028.

    As MEED understands, Elsewedy has engaged EEG to provide engineering services. The scope includes detailed design, shop drawings, as-built documentation, project coordination and 3D building information modelling services.

    The company said the work will cover electrical, instrumentation and control systems, architecture, structural and steel works, mechanical, electrical and plumbing systems, wet and dry utilities, roads and landscaping.

    According to company data, the desalination sector accounts for about 25% of EEG’s water projects portfolio. The company said it has completed about 72 projects in the water sector to date, including wastewater treatment, industrial wastewater treatment, water treatment and desalination schemes.

    READ THE JUNE 2026 MEED BUSINESS REVIEW – click here to view PDF

    GCC looks beyond the Strait; Iraq’s reform window narrows as fiscal assumptions shatter; MEED Top 100 companies.

    Distributed to senior decision-makers in the region and around the world, the June 2026 edition of MEED Business Review includes:
    To see previous issues of MEED Business Review, please click here
    https://image.digitalinsightresearch.in/uploads/NewsArticle/17143025/main.jpg
    Mark Dowdall
  • Israel strikes Iranian petrochemicals complex

    8 June 2026

    Israel has hit Iran’s Mahshahr petrochemicals complex in the country’s Khuzestan province, according to the Israeli military and reports in Iranian news outlets.

    The Israeli military said that it was targeting Karun Petrochemical Company.

    In a separate statement, Mahshahr Petrochemical Special Economic Zone said that workers at the site had been evacuated.

    Karun Petrochemical Company produces a range of products.

    It has the nameplate capacity to produce 40,000 tonnes a year (t/y) of toluene diisocyanate (TDI) and 40,000 t/y of methylene diphenyl diisocyanate (MDI).

    It also has the capacity to produce 30,000 t/y of aniline and 92,300 t/y of nitric acid (HNO3).

    TDI and MDI are both used primarily as building blocks to create polyurethane products.

    TDI is mostly used to make flexible polyurethane foams and MDI is usually used to create rigid foams, adhesives, sealants and elastomers.

    Aniline is also used to make urethane polymers, as well as being used in the dye industry, where it is a precursor to indigo, which is used to dye jeans blue.

    Nitric acid is a highly corrosive mineral acid and its main industrial use is to produce fertilisers.

    The Mahshahr petrochemicals complex is one of the most important petrochemical complexes in Iran. It was previously hit by Israel in strikes in April, forcing evacuations.

    On 4 April, Israeli forces targeted at least eight major petrochemical complexes in the Mahshahr region, along with critical supporting infrastructure, including power plants that supply electricity to the industrial zone.

    Mahshahr accounts for approximately 28% of Iran’s petrochemicals production.

    Iran’s petrochemicals industry is the country’s second-largest source of export revenue after crude oil.

    The country has a nominal production capacity of about 95 million t/y of petrochemicals, although actual output prior to the latest conflict was significantly lower due to persistent shortages of electricity and natural gas.

    Iran has invested tens of billions of dollars in developing its petrochemicals infrastructure, and if facilities are severely damaged, rebuilding would pose a major financial and technical challenge.

    READ THE JUNE 2026 MEED BUSINESS REVIEW – click here to view PDF

    GCC looks beyond the Strait; Iraq’s reform window narrows as fiscal assumptions shatter; MEED Top 100 companies.

    Distributed to senior decision-makers in the region and around the world, the June 2026 edition of MEED Business Review includes:
    To see previous issues of MEED Business Review, please click here
    https://image.digitalinsightresearch.in/uploads/NewsArticle/17142886/main.jpg
    Wil Crisp
  • Ora awards Unec a $517m UAE construction deal

    8 June 2026

    Egypt’s Ora Developers has awarded local contractor United Engineering Construction (Unec) a AED1.9bn ($517m) main works contract for the first phase of the Bayn mixed-use development in Ghantoot, between Dubai and Abu Dhabi.

    The 31-month construction contract covers 614 residential units, including townhouses and standalone villas, across Cluster B (Y Waterway), Cluster C (Y Lagoon) and Cluster D (Y Lagoon 2). The scope also includes associated infrastructure and landscaping works.

    In a statement, Ora said mobilisation started immediately, with construction commencing on 1 June. The programme includes interim milestones for each cluster.

    In December last year, NMDC Group won a AED142m contract to execute enabling works for the Bayn masterplan.

    UK-based firm Mace has been appointed to lead the overall project management. Canadian firm WSP will serve as the masterplan, infrastructure, landscape and water bodies design consultant.

    US-based Aecom will provide construction supervision services. Hong Kong’s 10 Design is the project’s architectural concept design consultant. Local firm Dewan Architects & Engineers is the project’s design consultant and architect of record. The UK’s Currie & Brown is the cost consultant.

    MEED reported in April that Ora Developers signed a land acquisition agreement with Abu Dhabi-based developer Modon Holding to acquire an additional 4.8 million square metres (sq m) of land in Ghantoot. The acquisition will increase the Bayn masterplan from 4.8 million sq m to 9.6 million sq m.

    Ora added that total investment in the masterplan is expected to reach AED30bn on completion.

    https://image.digitalinsightresearch.in/uploads/NewsArticle/17142916/main.jpg
  • Israeli offensive leaves Beirut in limbo

    5 June 2026

     

    Lebanon is being held in economic and political limbo by Israel’s open-ended offensive in the south, which has killed more than 3,500 people since March and is characterised by strategic objectives that offer no clear end in sight.

    Political leaders in Tel Aviv are justifying the operation on the grounds of eliminating Hezbollah – a far‑fetched goal against a dispersed guerrilla organisation, as with Hamas in Gaza – while ignoring overtures from Lebanon’s leadership for a ceasefire.

    The recently formed Lebanese government, meanwhile, continues to look impotent: unable to secure its territory from Israeli incursions or Hezbollah activity, and unable to deliver on promises of stability, reform, IMF funding and reconstruction.

    Echoes of the past

    The overarching shape of Israel’s military campaign is ominously familiar, echoing the 1978, 1982, 1985 and 2006 Israeli invasions of southern Lebanon – all entailing creeping encroachment without strategic resolution.

    Since fighting resumed on 2 March 2026, Israeli forces have gradually pushed north, crossing north of the Litani for the first time since the 2006 Lebanon war and seizing Beaufort Castle above Nabatieh on 31 May.

    Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has framed the goal as establishing a “security zone” – the same term and concept Israel used to justify the occupation of a roughly 800-square-kilometre belt of southern Lebanon from 1985 to 2000.

    That occupation was a debacle for Israel’s military and ended in unilateral withdrawal.

    Israeli analysts are already drawing the modern parallels as the cost of holding ground in southern Lebanon rises, driven by Hezbollah’s deployment of cheap fibre‑optic first‑person‑view (FPV) drones that inflict a steady drip of Israeli casualties and losses.

    As with Russia in Ukraine, Tel Aviv is being tactically embarrassed by the advent of these fibre‑optic drones, which are immune to jamming and – of particular concern to Israeli forces – are too small to be reliably detected and intercepted by conventional counter‑drone systems.

    This leap in Hezbollah’s operational threat – based on cheap technology that can be locally assembled – has sharply raised the price of maintaining a military presence in the country.

    In an attempt to exact a retaliatory price, Israel’s air strikes rose by 110% between 19-22 May and 23-26 May as Hezbollah’s drone successes accumulated, according to conflict monitor Acled. But the underlying tactical dilemma remains.

    Israeli politicians, irate at the situation, have demanded escalation and intensified strikes on civilian areas, including in Beirut  – only to face US pushback.

    Tehran as the lever

    Planned strikes on Beirut, including on 3 June, have been held off in recent weeks under pressure from Washington after Tehran made Lebanon a bargaining chip in its wider negotiations with the US, repeatedly suspending talks following Israeli escalation in the Levant country.

    Tehran has also gone further than walkouts, warning it could respond directly if Israel strikes Beirut – adding an explicit threat of retaliation to diplomatic pressure.

    With a Gulf ceasefire and the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz both riding on the outcome, Washington is strongly motivated to keep Israel from striking Beirut.

    In this way, Iran is one of the few powers wielding any leverage over Israel’s actions in Lebanon – even if that leverage is a source of discomfort for Lebanon’s leaders, for whom Tehran’s clout contrasts starkly with their own lack of influence.

    That protection nevertheless remains narrowly tied to the Lebanese capital, with Washington turning a blind eye to Israel’s ongoing destruction of civilian infrastructure in Lebanon’s south.

    Within the border belt that Tel Aviv has dubbed the “yellow line” – amounting to about 7% of Lebanese territory – Israeli forces have accelerated the demolition of villages since the April truce and barred residents from returning.

    More than a million people, overwhelmingly Shia from the south and the Bekaa, have been displaced since March, and UN human-rights experts have pointed to the blanket evacuation orders and levelling of housing as mirroring Israel’s conduct in Gaza.

    The Lebanese state remains trapped in inaction, partially of its own making. Beirut was initially close to indifferent to renewed strikes on Hezbollah, whose unilateral re-entry into the war it had condemned for endangering the state.

    But as the strikes have shifted methodically towards civilian areas, Beirut’s restraint satisfies no one: the domestic audience wants protection, while Israel and the US want decisive Lebanese army action against Hezbollah.

    Yet the Lebanese army – still adhering in spirit to the November 2024 ceasefire framework and loath to move seriously against Hezbollah for fear of stoking civil war – has remained aloof from the conflict.

    Parliament speaker Nabih Berri, who is close to Hezbollah and maintains dialogue with the group, says it would honour a genuine ceasefire if only Washington could deliver one.

    But repeated attempts to shore up the ceasefire have remained conditional on the Lebanese army stepping up to rein in Hezbollah, while failing to guarantee an end to Israel’s destruction of civilian structures in areas it is occupying.

    On 3 June, a fourth round of US‑mediated trilateral talks produced a fresh ceasefire announcement, hailed in Washington as a step towards comprehensive peace.

    Yet its conditions – a complete halt to Hezbollah fire, the group’s withdrawal south of the Litani and Lebanese army control of undefined “pilot zones”– merely reiterate past failed protocols. The declaration was unsigned by Hezbollah and unenforceable by Beirut.

    Within hours, Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem rejected the declaration, stating that any ceasefire must cover the south and begin with Israeli withdrawal, not Hezbollah’s.

    Both Israeli strikes and Hezbollah attacks have continued since the ostensible deal.

    Recovery on hold

    The economic cost to Lebanon, meanwhile, compounds by the day. The country entered 2026 already in crisis: cumulative GDP down close to 40% since 2019, the pound down 98%, public debt at 150% of GDP, and reserves as low as $11bn as of June 2025.

    The government of President Joseph Aoun and Prime Minister Nawaf Salam staked its credibility on a long‑deadlocked IMF programme finally unlocking external support. The war has upended this, driving away investment and delaying reform.

    The World Bank’s November 2024 assessment – covering only the previous round of fighting, before the March resumption – placed the economic cost at $14bn and recovery needs at $11bn, figures that the current war is now inflating by the day.

    Lebanon’s Bank Audi has warned of zero growth this year if the war continues, versus a pre‑escalation projection of reconstruction‑led recovery. Tourism, historically a fifth of the economy and the engine of the 2024 rebound, has been the biggest casualty.

    Looking ahead, no reconstruction can be financed while the destruction continues, and no IMF programme can advance while the state cannot ensure stability.

    Iran’s leverage may be keeping the bombs off Beirut, but the south’s entrenchment as a war zone is only deepening – with hopes for recovery receding further with every village levelled.

    While the costly occupation is imposing a rising political price on the Israeli government that may, in time, bring it to an end, this will be little consolation for those displaced – many of whom now have no communities to return to, and homes built over decades that are gone.

    https://image.digitalinsightresearch.in/uploads/NewsArticle/17120249/main.gif
    John Bambridge
  • Morocco tenders Falit dam project

    5 June 2026

    Morocco’s Ministry of Equipment & Water has opened an international tender for the construction of the Falit dam in Figuig province.

    According to local media reports, the project has an estimated budget of MD428m ($46m), with commissioning expected between 2029 and 2030.

    The bid submission deadline is 15 July.

    The dam will be built on the Moulouya River north of Bouarfa in eastern Morocco. The roller-compacted concrete structure will be 59 metres high and have a storage capacity of 25 million cubic metres.

    The project is intended to provide drinking water supplies, support agricultural irrigation and enhance flood protection in the region.

    Figuig is one of Morocco’s driest regions. It is also vulnerable to flash floods caused by sporadic but intense rainfall events.

    Reported ministry data indicates that annual flows at the project site can reach 40.8 million cubic metres in wet years. Long-term average flows are estimated at about 10.3 million cubic metres a year.

    The dam will include a spillway and a bottom outlet equipped with a 1,500-millimetre pipe. The outlet will have a discharge capacity of 28 cubic metres a second and will allow the reservoir to be emptied within 15 days if required.

    Morocco dam infrastructure

    The Figuig region is also home to the Kheng Grou dam project, which is designed to have a storage capacity of 1.07 billion cubic metres.

    According to regional project tracker MEED Projects, the dam is on track to be completed by the end of the year.

    Morocco-headquartered Bioui Travaux is the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contractor for the project, valued at $96m. 

    Another local firm Novec is acting as the main contractor on the project.

    The Falit dam tender comes as Morocco continues to invest in new dams, desalination plants and water transfer schemes to address growing pressure on water resources.

    The country currently has over $13bn-worth of dam projects under construction, the largest of which is the Ratba dam project in the province of Taounate.

    Construction is also set to begin on the $238m Bou Ahmed Dam project, covering 259 hectares, in the province of Chefchaouen. According to MEED Projects data, this was the only major dam contract awarded last year.

    The joint venture of Societe Generale des Travaux du Maroc and Stam Morocco, a subsidiary of the TGCC group, will carry out EPC works on the project.

    READ THE JUNE 2026 MEED BUSINESS REVIEW – click here to view PDF

    GCC looks beyond the Strait; Iraq’s reform window narrows as fiscal assumptions shatter; MEED Top 100 companies.

    Distributed to senior decision-makers in the region and around the world, the June 2026 edition of MEED Business Review includes:
    To see previous issues of MEED Business Review, please click here
    https://image.digitalinsightresearch.in/uploads/NewsArticle/17120660/main.jpg
    Mark Dowdall