Saudi Aramco awards Hasbah gas expansion to Larsen & Toubro, Emas

Saudi Aramco has awarded contracts worth at least $1 billion to India's Larsen & Toubro and Singapore-based Emas AMC for the expansion of the offshore Hasbah sour gas field, Reuters reported, citing industry sources.

The contracts entail building platforms and pipelines, with the field's supply feeding the Fadhili gas plant, a $6 billion complex, as the kingdom seeks to increase its gas production to use it for power generation and water desalination instead of burning crude oil.

After the expansion, Hasbah will supply 2 billion cubic feet per day (scfd) of gas to the Fadhili plant. The remaining 500 million scfd of supply for the plant will come from the onshore Khursaniyah field.

Hasbah already feeds Wasit gas plant. Aramco said in March it had started producing natural gas from the offshore field ahead of peak summer demand in Saudi Arabia. An industry source told Reuters the Wasit plant would reach full capacity of processing 2.5 billion scfd of gas in July.

A team of Emas AMC, a unit of Ezra Holdings, and India's Larsen & Toubro has recently secured another long-term contract with Aramco to work on offshore facilities.