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Two set to bid for Aramco sulphur recovery units

28 April 2023

 

Two teams are understood to be preparing to submit proposals on 30 April for the contract to modify sulphur recovery units (SRUs) at Saudi Aramco’s key gas processing plants.

Aramco issued the main tender for the large downstream tail-gas treatment (TGT) facility in May last year, as MEED reported.

According to industry sources, the teams expected to bid for the contract are:

  • Vision Invest (Saudi Arabia) / Larsen & Toubro (India)
  • Lamar Holding (Saudi Arabia) / Hyundai Engineering (South Korea) / Korea Overseas Infrastructure & Urban Development Corporation (South Korea) / Enerflex (Canada)

Aramco expects third-party investments of up to $2bn in the desulphurisation programme, which entails building a large downstream tail-gas treatment (TGT) facility to collect and process tail gas discharged from SRUs at identified gas plants.

The facility is to be developed either on a build, own and operate (BOO) or build-own-operate-transfer (BOOT) basis. This will make it one of Aramco’s initial public-private partnership (PPP) exercises in its main oil and gas business, if not the first.

SO2 reduction campaign

The Aramco programme is in line with the regulations for emissions to air from stationary sources set out by Saudi Arabia’s Environment, Water & Agriculture Ministry. These stipulate that sulphur dioxide (SO2) emissions from stationary sources must not exceed 250 parts per million volume (dry and 0 per cent oxygen basis). They must also comply with the SO2 ambient emission limits or ground-level SO2 concentration.

The rollout of the desulphurisation scheme stems from Aramco’s goal to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 and is part of its environmental, social and governance initiatives, sources previously said.

Seven gas plants in Saudi Arabia’s Eastern Province have been identified from which tail gas needs to be treated for up to 99.9 per cent SO2 removal:

  • Berri
  • Haradh
  • Hawiyah
  • Khursaniyah
  • Shedgum
  • Uthmaniyah
  • Wasit

The scope of the scheme has been split into two packages, one source said. The first package covers gas plants in Aramco’s Zone 1 – Berri, Khursaniyah and Wasit – while the second package relates to units in Zone 2 – Haradh, Hawiyah, Shedgum and Uthmaniyah.

Along with fully financing the project, the developer will need to adopt one of the following commercial desulphurisation technologies approved by Aramco for the scheme:

  • TGT reduction absorption
  • Ammonia-based desulphurisation
  • Dry sorbent injection
  • Flue gas desulphurisation using gypsum

According to Aramco, the project will cover “the end-to-end application of the approved technologies, including but not limited to required plot space, utilities, market analysis and logistics of feedstock and byproduct, contractual arrangements, risks associated with each technology related to safety, process reliability and SO2 emissions compliance on a continuous basis”.

Aramco expects the common TGT facility to be operational by 2027.

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Jennifer Aguinaldo

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