TotalEnergies, the French major and a leading global LNG project developer and investor, has awarded engineering, procurement and construction contracts to five companies for the $11 billion Amiral complex project, a world-scale petrochemicals facility expansion at the Satorp refinery in Saudi Arabia as part of a joint venture with Saudi Aramco.
The facility will house the largest mixed-load steam cracker in the Gulf with capacity to produce 1.65 million tons of ethylene and other industrial gases per annum.
Aramco and TotalEnergies have teamed up for this project as the French energy developer also prepares multi-billion dollar investments in LNG joint ventures in the Gulf state of Qatar as well as in Mozambique and the US.
Gulf presence
QatarEnergy selected TotalEnergies as a key international partner in both the North Field South (NFS) liquefaction venture and the North Field East (NFE) project that will take Qatar’s production to 126 million tonnes per annum of LNG.
In addition, the French major is also the operator of the large-scale onshore LNG project in Mozambique that is also moving forward and was recently chosen to partner NextDecade Corp. of the US for the Rio Grande LNG export venture in Texas.
For the Saudi refinery project, the EPC contracts signing ceremony took place in Dhahran in Saudi Arabia attended by Aramco President and Chief Executive Amin H. Nasser and his TotalEnergies counterpart Patrick Pouyanné.
“The award of EPC contracts for the main process units and associated utilities marks the start of construction work on this joint project, following the final investment decision in December 2022,” said TotalEnergies.
Aramco ‘s Nasser said the company was taking a major step forward in further strengthening the partnership between TotalEnergies and Aramco.
“As part of Aramco’s growth strategy, the project is anticipated to contribute to value-addition opportunities in the Kingdom’s downstream ecosystem, and we thank the Ministry of Energy and the Ministry of Investment for their tremendous support via the Shareek program to make this multi-billion-dollar project a reality,” Nasser stated.
The Kingdom's Shareek program aims to unlock 5 trillion Saudi riyals (US$1.35 trillion) of private-sector investments by 2030, raising private-sector GDP contributions to 65 percent and to increase non-oil exports over time from 16 percent to 50 percent
Integrated
The Saudi Amiral project will be integrated with the existing Satorp refinery in Jubail and the new petrochemical complex is expected to attract more than $4 billion in additional investment in a variety of industrial sectors and create thousands of jobs.
“This expansion reinforces the exemplary relationship that our two companies have enjoyed for several decades,” Pouyanné said.
The EPC contracts list includes South Korea’s Hyundai Engineering & Construction Co. to work on a mixed feed cracker and utilities project for related industrial gases and flaring and interconnecting systems that support the main packages.
The Rome, Italy-based company Maire Tecnimont won the contract for two polyethylene units using Advanced Dual Loop technology and the derivative units.
Sinopec Engineering Group Saudi Co. was put in charge of the tank farm and Satorp integration.
Among regional companies, Gulf Consolidated Contractors Co. will work on the transfer pipelines, Mohammed Ali Al-Suwailem Trading & Contracting will build industrial support facilities and Mofarreh Marzouq Al Harbi & Partners is in charge of site preparations.
