OREANDA-NEWS. November 26, 2014. Saudi Aramco has released the tenders for seven engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contracts for the Khurais Program.

The Khurais Arabian Light Crude Increment is an onshore oil field development, which saw the field initially discovered in 1957. By 2009, KhCPF had a processing capacity of 1.2 million barrels per day (bpd) of Arabian Light crude oil, 320 million standard cubic feet per day (scfd) of associated gas and 80,000 bpd of natural gas liquids (NGLs).

With an eye toward the future, a new project was initiated to increase the crude production of the facility to 1.5 million bpd, making KhCPF one of the largest oil producing facilities in the world. Planning for the new Khurais increment project began in 2012 and the Front End Engineering Design (FEED) was completed in May 2014.

The current Khurais Program involves the development of the Lower Fadhli field and production to KhCPF, and includes the construction of new processing facilities to handle an additional capacity of 300,000 bpd of Arabian Light crude oil, 143,000,000 scfd of associated gas and 34,000 bpd of NGL. To accommodate this increase, a new gas-oil separation plant (GOSP), a crude stabilization unit and a gas train will be installed at the KhCPF.

Two gas turbine driven pump trains will also be installed to provide treated seawater injection for reservoir pressure support.

To optimize energy efficiency and make the plant partially self-reliant with power, a 165 megawatt co-generation unit will also be installed. About 45 percent of the power generated will come from recovering waste heat from the gas turbine hot exhaust flue gases that otherwise would have been vented into the atmosphere.

To comply with Saudi government directives to conserve groundwater, one of the largest membrane technology-based facilities within Saudi Aramco will be installed to use seawater to produce water for process use and refined seawater for injection and enhanced oil recovery production testing.

The Khurais Program will also see the installation of a grass-roots satellite GOSP to debottleneck and restore 200,000 bpd of production capacity from the Abu Jifan and Mazalij fields. To support the Khurais Program, 650 kilometers of pipeline will be installed to transport crude oil, gas, NGL and seawater.

The tender for the construction activities of the plant was awarded to Italian company Saipem last month. Currently, the project has broken ground and site preparation for the construction areas is underway. Project completion is slated for 2017.