ALKHOBAR: Saudi oil giant Aramco has awarded a contract to upgrade fuel plants to local firm M.S Al-Suwaidi Industrial Services Co, two sources close to the deal said on Saturday.
The deal, awarded last month, is for the upgrade of 14 bulk plants in several regions in the Kingdom to raise the storage capacity for gasoline, diesel and fuel oil.
A bulk plant is a wholesale receiving and distributing facility for oil products. It includes storage tanks, warehouses and truck loading facilities. Aramco is overhauling and expanding domestic distribution facilities to meet rapidly rising domestic demand.
The value of the procurement and construction contract is around $200 million, one of the sources said.
Al-Suwaidi would have to sub-contract the engineering work to another company. Construction work is expected to finish in about two-and-a-half years, the source said.
Saudi Arabia’s Nesma Group, Britain’s Petrofac, India’s Dayim Punj Lloyd, Italy’s Snamprogetti, South Korea’s SK Engineering & Construction, France’s Technip, and Spain’s Tecnicas Reunidas were among the bidders. Aramco has also invited contractors last month to bid for the construction of a new fuel distribution plant in Wasea, in the Kingdom’s central region.
The plant would have the capacity to handle 185,000 barrels of oil per day.
Meanwhile, Saudi-based Rabigh Refining and Petrochemical Co. (PetroRabigh) said it expects its fourth-quarter sales to be bolstered by the start of propylene oxide production.
PetroRabigh’s propylene oxide’s units can produce up to 200,000 tons per year, it said in a statement posted on the bourse website.
“This will reflect positively on the company’s sales during the fourth-quarter,” it said. The statement did not give the start date of the production of propylene oxide, which is used in producing plastics, nor indicate its output capacity.
PetroRabigh is a $10.3 billion joint-venture between Saudi Aramco and Japan’s Sumitomo Chemical initially designed to be export-oriented.
