By Rhodri Morgan
Saudi Aramco, the world’s richest energy company, is set to finalise its list of contractors to win a $5bn construction deal working on the world’s largest offshore oilfield.
According to a report from industry title ChemAnalyst yesterday, the Saudi Arabian national oil company is nearly done vetting preferred bidders for two large onshore engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) contracts at Safaniya, located in the Persian Gulf.
Indian engineering firm Larsen & Toubro (L&T) is the favourite to win an initial construction agreement, with Hyundai Engineering & Construction of South Korea reportedly being a front-runner for the second deal.
China Offshore Oil Engineering Co was awarded a similar construction tender by Aramco in May last year, with its pipeline expected to begin production in July this year.
Saudi Aramco is the third biggest company in the world by market cap ($2.2tn) second only to Apple and Microsoft. It stated in its FY22 results presentation in March last year that it hoped to expand its crude oil production to 13m barrels per day (bpd).
Safaniya alone currently produces around 1.3m barrels per day and the company is aiming to up production by 700,000 bpd from 2027 – 350,000 of which could come online before the end of 2026.
The company’s chief, Amin Nasser, has been publicly vocal on the important role he sees oil and gas playing during the energy transition, going as far as to say that efforts to discourage investment in the sectors have hindered the move towards cleaner energy.
Alongside aggressively pursuing more oil production, Nasser has committed to upping the company’s LNG portfolio with the hope of being a major player in the market.
The company achieved a profit of $161bn for 2022, the largest ever recorded for an oil and gas firm.
For its Q2 of 2023, the company reported a 38 per cent profit slide to $30bn amid weaker oil prices.
