Yokogawa Middle East (YME) is partnering with Saudi Aramco to help the oil major achieve unparalleled levels of success in boosting the kingdom’s energy stream.

In addition to several other challenging initiatives in the regional energy sector, Yokogawa is playing a pioneering role in Saudi Aramco’s Hawiyah Gas Plant expansion. Saudi Aramco is expanding the plant to process more volumes of non-associated gas, and it is also expanding its master gas network.

Expansion project
Saudi Aramco selected YME as the process control systems (PCS) supplier for Hawiyah Gas Plant expansion in April 2006 to work with its lumpsum turnkey (LSTK) contractor. This project calls for expanding the plant capacity by adding new process units and facilities.

Replacement projects
In addition, YME won two contracts to replace the plant’s process control and emergency shutdown systems:
• The first, awarded in April 2006 involved replacing the existing distributed control system (DCS) with the state-of-the-art CENTUM CS3000 DCS; and
• The second, in October 2006, comprised replacing the existing emergency shutdown system (ESD) with the cutting-edge ProSafe-RS ESD system.
YME was given a challenging delivery date – the new DCS/ESD systems had to be delivered to the site by August 2007. This was in consideration of the window available for ‘cut-over’ to new DCS/ESD systems from October 2007 to end of January 2008.
Another pre-requisite was that the cut-over to new DCS/ESD systems had to be coordinated and completed in time for the Hawiyah gas expansion project.
YME’s scope of work included site surveys, extracting design data from the plant archives and existing control systems, system design, design reviews, manufacturing, fully integrated testing and delivery to site.
Soon after the project’s kick-off meeting, YME engineers made several plant visits and site surveys to get the system design right.
The plant is large, with DCS 12,000 hardwired DCS inputs/outputs and 5,000 hardwired ESD inputs/outputs). A large project team and facility was required to stage and test the entire system configuration in a fully integrated manner at the supplier’s location.
YME scaled up its infrastructure to meet the challenge locally, resulting in a satisfied and happy customer. YME’s project team comprised 40 people and the testing area allocated for the project was 1,600 sq m.
YME is providing critical systems and services for the expansion of the Hawiyah plant. All the equipment has been shipped to the site and Yokogawa Middle East is currently involved in the installation of the equipment in preparation for the site acceptance test (SAT).

Construction project
Subsequently, Yokogawa was awarded a procurement and construction contract for carrying out the site work for DCS/ESD replacement projects on a lumpsum procurement and build (LSPB) basis. The scope of work included supply of fibre-optic and multi-core cables, various construction materials, control room renovation, installation of new control systems, cut-over (cold and hot), demolition of existing hardware, documentation and hand-over.
YME executed these projects from its regional headquarters in Bahrain. This facilitated ease of interaction with all the project stakeholders during the initial critical phase, including Saudi Aramco’s project management team, plant engineers, Saudi Aramco’s P&CSD and other sub-system suppliers.
 YME received good support from Saudi Aramco team members who were keen on enhancing the present plant operation by deploying the latest technology available.
Yokogawa’s solution of CS3000 and ProSafe-RS being integrated at the control network level meant significant advantages to the customer.
Yokogawa’s involvement will provide key benefits in: control system optimisation, operator’s productivity improvement, safety enhancement, performance and reliability enhancement, maintainability enhancement, knowledge transfer, and improvement of plant documentation.
As Yokogawa’s involvement in the Hawiyah project enters a crucial phase, YME is now ready to handle bigger challenges as part of its continuous growth in the Middle East, a spokesman comments, adding that the Hawiyah project is another example of the trust and confidence placed on YME by a major customer.
Construction work on the Hawiyah plant expansion is ahead of schedule and the project will come on stream in 2008.
YME customers have praised the company for the following reasons: simplified logistics, close co-ordination with end-user engineers, the ability to relocate most of the project’s activities to YME’s office, and factory acceptance testing of various systems at one location.
Through the successful execution of these contracts at Hawiyah gas plant from its base in Bahrain, Yokogawa Middle East has proven its capability to execute large-scale projects locally in the Middle East, to the fullest satisfaction of its customers, the spokesman adds.