JGC wins Aramco shale gas contract

expat network

JGC wins Aramco shale gas contract

Japan’s JGC Corp has won a contract to build shale gas facilities in Saudi Arabia for oil company Saudi Aramco industry sources familiar with the matter said.

The project will involve building processing facilities, wellheads and pipelines for gas in Turaif, where a big mining project called Waad Al-Shamal is under development.

The sources could not give an exact value for the contract estimated to be as much as $200 million, one source said.

A JGC spokesman in Japan confirmed that its subsidiary had made a bid for the project but the company has received no official notification of the result.

Saudi Aramco declined to comment on the report.

The award of the contract was originally due to happen by end November 2014 with a targeted completion in December 2016 before the bidding process was extended several times.

Capacity of the gas gathering facility increased to 66 million scfd (standard cubic feet per day) from 50 million scfd when Aramco originally tendered the project.

Four companies are bidding for another unconventional gas project, an expansion of the System A and known as System B. The project is four times as big as System A.

The mining project and a power plant for Saudi mining company Ma’aden is projected to take 200 million cu ft per day of unconventional gas by 2018 from the projects.

The search for natural gas remains a priority for Saudi Arabia as it struggles to keep pace with rapidly rising domestic demand for power and its strategically important petrochemicals industry.

It has been inspired by the shale gas surge in the United States, which has been transformed from the world’s largest gas importer to an exporter.

The kingdom has made appraisals of unconventional gas potential in its northwest, Eastern Province and Empty Quarter.

Saudi oil officials gave a new estimate of how much shale gas will be produced in Saudi Arabia. It will pump 20 to 50 million cubic feet per day in 2016, ramping to 500 million cu ft per day by 2018 with an end target of 4 billion cu ft per day by 2025.

Reuters (Reporting by Reem Shamseddine; additional reporting by Yuka Obayashi, editing by David Evans)

Source: Hellenic Shipping News

Moving Abroad Checklist

Initial Considerations

Will your partner be travelling with you?

If so, what will they be giving up in your present home and will they be able to continue with their career in your new home? You will need to check whether a separate visa is required for your partner to work or if your visa gives that right. If they are unable to work you will need to decide on the effect on your finances and what alternatives are available to give a fulfilling life (home business, training, voluntary work).

Are you taking family with you?

Moving with family raises many exciting opportunities, but also can create challenges. The HSBC Expat Explorer survey indicates that expat kids can take six months to settle in to their new country (see article). Getting young or even older children to prepare to move and leave their friends and family behind can be a challenge and should be thought through.

The options for education is another area that needs to be thought through.

Moving your child to a new country with a different education system can be a great opportunity to broaden their experience, but if they are close to key exams the timing can make this inadvisable. If you do take your family with you, it is important to decide between joining the local school system or choosing an international school.

Where will you be living?

Whether you will be living in a house or apartment, furnished or unfurnished, these decisions will affect what you need to take with you. The time you are planning to live overseas will also affect whether you should leave your property at home empty, rent it out or sell it. See the article Sell, Store or Ship.