Mega-Project Teams Gather in Milan
Posted: 03 October 2005
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Saudi Aramco executives met with the CEOs of some of the top engineering companies in the world here to share updates on three crude oil and natural gas mega-projects that are in the works in the Kingdom.
The projects will provide crude oil and products to the world and natural gas for the Kingdom's petrochemical, seawater desalination and electrical power industries.
The construction projects are a fast-track 500,000-barrel-per-day Arab Light crude production project, which will pump oil from Saudi Arabia's Abu Hadriyah, Fadhili and Khursaniyah fields; a natural-gas liquids (NGL) plant at Saudi Aramco's existing Hawiyah Gas Plant; and an expansion of the existing gas fractionation plant at Ju'aymah Gas Plant. All these projects are in the Eastern Pr ovince .
Pr esident and CEO Abdallah S. Jum'ah praised teams for their rapid progress on the challenging projects, which he said are essential to help meet fast-growing domestic and international demand for petroleum products, and natural gas.
"Saudi Aramco has a strategy consistent with the Kingdom's policy of having between 1.5 million to 2 million barrels of excess capacity," Jum'ah told gathered executives and contractors. "This brings stability to the world economy, and we all benefit from that. We can do it, but it's a team effort - and we need your commitments to get the jobs done as planned and on time."
Saudi Aramco engineers are stationed in Rome , London , Milan and other cities around the world, working hand-in-hand with contractor colleagues at top global engineering firms that are participating in the projects.
Italy 's Snamprogetti is the main contractor on the crude-producing component, and Bechtel/Technip is working on the project's gas-plant facilities.
Engineering contractors on the Hawiyah project, which will produce 3.8 billion standard cubic feet per day (scfd) of gas, including dry gas, NGL and ethane, are Snamprogetti, JGC, General Dynamics, Yokogawa and GE Nuevo Pignone.
Spain 's Tecnicas Reunidas is the main contractor on the Ju'aymah project, which calls for the construction of a fractionation train to produce 270,000 barrels per day (bpd) of ethane and NGL and 100,000 bpd of propane and NGL.
"These programs are critical when the whole world is counting on us," said Ali A. Al-Ajmi, Saudi Aramco's vice president of Pr oject Management.
Salim S. Al-Aydh, senior vice president of Engineering and Operations Services, said, "After I heard the (contractor) CEOs speaking of their commitment, it touched my heart, and I have great confidence that we will overcome whatever obstacles we encounter, together."
With Saudi Aramco's encouragement, project contractors are moving forward to Saudize their project work forces and to increase the use of Saudi materials and services suppliers.
For example, Enzo Erdoni, Snamprogetti manager on the Hawiyah project, reported that the company is already 33 percent ahead of its initial Saudization target, and that it is working with King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals in Dhahran and Saudi high schools to find talented students who will join its project teams in the Kingdom. Snamprogetti personnel will help train young Saudi engineers and hopes to have 45 join its ranks in the coming months.
"We will include as many Saudi engineers as we can on our team," Erdoni said.
Satoshi Sato, Hawiyah project manager for Japanese engineering powerhouse JGC, noted that Saudi-based Radicon Gulf Construction was already working on 11 of 18 buildings in the project. Sato said JGC is also hiring Saudis for its home-office engineering department and that all the later construction drawings will be done in Saudi Arabia . JGC also is starting a training school to qualify Saudis for good-paying jobs in construction trades.
Contractor Yokogawa, one of the world's leading process-control companies, announced that it plans to open an office in al-Khobar later this year, eventually employing up to 100 workers.
The Saudi private sector is a strong partner in these projects, to date providing 42 percent of needed materials.
Saudi Aramco's world-class contracting strategies, developed through successful completion of numerous mega-projects, have impressed executives of contractors in the new projects.
Posted by Editor Pipeline Magazine
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