Aramco to start Khursaniyah gas plant soon

KHOBAR, Saudi Arabia (Reuters) – Saudi Aramco’s gas processing plant at Khursaniyah was expected to start partial operations in a few weeks, two contracting sources said on Sunday.

Delays in construction at the plant delayed the whole 500,000 barrels per day Khursaniyah oilfield development project, one of the largest in Saudi expansion plans as the kingdom boosted crude production capacity to 12.5 million bpd.

Khursaniyah oilfield started output in September 2008, even though the gas plant was incomplete. The whole project was initially scheduled to start in December 2007. A shortage in labour and materials led to the delay at the gas plant.

The plant has capacity to process around 1 billion cubic feet per day (cfd) of sour gas from the Abu Hadriya, Fadhili and Khursaniyah fields. It has three trains each with a capacity of 600 million cfd and would also process gas from the Karan offshore field.

“Pre-commissioning of Train 1 will be completed within a weeks time… Trains 2 and 3 will be ready for start-up by the end of February,” one contractor.

Reuters