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Aramco awards deals for upgraded gasoline
Saudi Aramco has awarded five major construction contracts, signifying the start of a major execution phase of the Two Grades of Gasoline Program within an ongoing strategy to upgrade such products and ensure cleaner environment. The program will allow company facilities to produce, store, handle and sell a new grade of gasoline (octane 91) for the Saudi market in addition to the current gasoline grade (octane 95).
Studies have confirmed that the majority of vehicles in the country are designed to use the octane 91, or premium gasoline. Using higher octane for those vehicles means higher cost for the customer for no added value.
Also, the program will expand distribution bulk plants’ capacity to provide both gasoline grades through the year 2015.
The five major construction contracts that were signed in Dhahran last month cover mechanical, electrical and instrumentation work at the company’s network of 18 bulk plants, four refineries and one terminal located throughout the Kingdom.
The awards are the latest in a series that have seen earlier contract awards for site preparation, storage tanks and plant construction. The five contracts were signed by four contractors. At the ceremony were Arabian Bemco Contracting Co., Contracting and Trading Co., M.R. Al-Khathlan for Contracting, and National Engineering Services and Marketing Co.
The program is the first of its kind in the company’s history in which construction will take place simultaneously at 23 sites Kingdomwide, said Majdi M. Al-Tamimi, Manager of Central and Western Region Projects Department. The job locations include refineries and major bulk plants in urban areas and bulk plants in remote and rural areas.
Al-Tamimi said domestic distribution of refined products cannot be interrupted or delayed. Work at each plant is planned so that normal distribution operations will serve thousands of trucks and supply the Kingdom’s strategic, commercial and service sectors without interruption.
The scope of the comprehensive program includes installation of additional storage tanks, pumps, loading and unloading skids, and metering systems, as well as piping, electrical and instrumentation upgrades. Process modifications will also be made at four of Saudi Aramco’s refineries to support the program. Construction is planned to take account of the commissioning sequence of all bulk plants and the start-up sequence for various systems within each plant
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