The scale of Aramco's investment at Jafurah and the expansion of its Master Gas System underscore its intention to further integrate and grow its gas business to meet anticipated rise in demand

Aramco awarded contracts worth more than $25 billion to progress its strategic gas expansion, which targets sales gas production growth of more than 60 per cent by 2030 compared to 2021 levels, in June this year.

The contracts relate to Phase 2 development of the vast Jafurah unconventional gas field, Phase 3 expansion of Aramco’s Master Gas System, new gas rigs and ongoing capacity maintenance.

Amin Nasser, Aramco President and CEO, said: "These contract awards demonstrate our firm belief in the future of gas as an important energy source, as well as a vital feedstock for downstream industries. The scale of our ongoing investment at Jafurah and the expansion of our Master Gas System underscores our intention to further integrate and grow our gas business to meet anticipated rising demand. This complements the diversification of our portfolio, creates new employment opportunities, and supports the Kingdom’s transition towards a lower-emission power grid, in which gas and renewables gradually displace liquids-based power generation. To get where we are today, a lot of hard work, innovation and a strong ‘can do’ spirit has been demonstrated by teams across our vast network of suppliers and service providers, who have joined Aramco on this journey to build and expand our world-class energy infrastructure."

The company has awarded 16 contracts, worth a combined total of around $12.4 billion, for Phase 2 development at Jafurah. The work will involve construction of gas compression facilities and associated pipelines, expansion of the Jafurah Gas Plant including construction of gas processing trains, and utilities, sulfur and export facilities. It will also involve construction of the company’s new Riyas Natural Gas Liquids (NGL) fractionation facilities in Jubail – including NGL fractionation trains, and utilities, storage and export facilities – to process NGL received from Jafuay (bscfd) by 2028, through the installation of around 4,000 km of pipelines and 17 new gas compression trains.

An additional 23 gas rig contracts worth $2.4 billion have also been awarded, along with two directional drilling contracts worth $612 million. Meanwhile, 13 well tie-in contracts at Jafurah, worth a total of $1.63 billlion, were awarded between December 2022 and May 2024.

PROGRESS AT JAFURAH

The Jafurah unconventional gas field is estimated to contain 229 trillion standard cu ft of raw gas and 75 billion Stock Tank Barrels of condensate. Phase one of the Jafurah development programme, which commenced in November 2021, is progressing on schedule with initial start-up anticipated in the third quarter of 2025. Aramco expects total overall lifecycle investment at Jafurah to exceed $100 billion and production to reach a sustainable sales gas rate of two billion standard cubic feet per day by 2030, in addition to significant volumes of ethane, NGL and condensate.

MASTER GAS SYSTEM EXPANSION

Aramco’s Master Gas System is an extensive network of pipelines that connects Aramco’s key gas production and processing sites throughout the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Its expansion will increase access to domestic gas supplies for customers in the industrial, utility and other sectors – providing a lower gas emission alternative to oil for power generation. From 1982, the network transported associated gas, also known as "waste gas" released during oil production, instead of being flared – illustrating Aramco’s innovation and early adoption of solutions that help mitigate emissions. This pioneering network, which now transports associated gas and sales gas, has helped Aramco achieve near-zero routine gas flaring and maintain a flare volume of less than 1 per cent of total raw gas production since 2012, contributing to the company having one of the lowest upstream carbon intensities in the industry.

Meanwhile, in April this year, Aramco awarded engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contracts worth $7.7 billion for a major expansion of its Fadhili Gas Plant in the Eastern Province. The project is expected to increase the plant’s processing capacity from 2.5 to up to 4 billion standard cu ft per day (bscfd).

The contracts were awarded to Samsung Engineering Company, GS Engineering & Construction Corporation, and Nesma & Partners.

This additional 1.5 bscfd of processing capacity is expected to contribute to the company’s strategy to raise gas production by more than 60 per cent by 2030, compared to 2021 levels. The Fadhili Gas Plant expansion, which is expected to be completed by November 2027, is also expected to add an additional 2,300 metric tonnes per day to sulphur production.

Wail Al Jaafari, Aramco Executive Vice-President of Technical Services, said: "The award of these contracts reflects Aramco’s goal to increase supplies of natural gas, help efforts to reduce gas emissions, and free up more crude oil for value-added refining and export. Together with leading international companies, we are advancing our goal to increase gas production. The expansion also supports our ambitions to develop a lower-carbon hydrogen business, while associated liquids from gas are an important feedstock for the petrochemical industry."