The Marjan Project, a $12 billion-dollar opportunity for contractors

March 29, 2018

The Marjan Field- a $12 billion dollar opportunity for contractors

The Marjan Development project is predicted to be Saudi Aramco’s largest upstream development project in 2018 and is gaining attention from international contractors as they queue up to participate in the tendering process for two giant offshore engineering, procurement, construction and installation contracts. In February Aramco began the chase for several onshore EPC packages.

The Marjan Development, operated by Saudi Aramco, project consists primarily of two projects (offshore & onshore).

Two packages are currently on offer for the offshore project. The first of the two cover a gas oil separation platform (GOSP-4) complex designed to handle 475,000 barrels of oil per day (bpd), 813,000 bpd of liquid and almost 750 million cubic feet per day of gas. The GOSP-4 package includes various facilities and platforms, including a new accommodation platform, gas compression platform, tie-in platform etc. It will also include one 36-inch subsea oil trunk line totalling 100 km, and two subsea cables to connect the offshore facilities to the Marjan field’s existing onshore facilities.
The second package on offer covers a cap gas production (CGP) network that includes a tie-in platform and two cap CGP wellhead platforms.

In addition to the two offshore packages mentioned, the work-scope is also said to include at least five subsea trunk lines to the already existing Tanajib Gas plant and several other tie-in and wellhead platforms.

The capital expenditure (CAPEX) is estimated to be upwards of $12 billion, with the two offshore packages being worth more than $5 billion. Saudi Aramco are likely to issue tenders for the two offshore packages to short-listed players by September, after having carried out the pre-qualification process over the next few months.

In February Saudi Aramco began the chase for several onshore EPC packages for the Marjan Development project. It is predicated that Aramco will present at least five different packages to tenderers.

The first onshore package comprises of an expansion of the existing Tanajib plant which will process an additional 300,000 bpd from the offshore Marjan field.
In addition, it is estimated that at least four additional packages have been offered to contractors for the creation of a new gas plant at Tanjib, which will process 2.790 billion cubic feet per day of gas and 85,000 bpd of condensate from the Marjan, Safaniyah and Zuluf offshore fields.

The onshore packages are estimated to be valued between $6 billion and $8 billion making the Marjan field a huge opportunity for EPC contractors and a project to keep an eye on in the following months. Aramco has used the Marjan Project to further strengthen its IKTV proposition concerning the creation of oil and gas jobs opportunities for Saudi citizens and local firms.