Riyadh – Mubasher: Saudi Arabian Oil Company (Aramco) has awarded a joint venture (JV) formed by the Spanish company Técnicas Reunidas and the Chinese Sinopec Engineering Group the development of new natural gas liquids (NGL) fractionation facilities in Saudi Arabia.

The total investment for these two contracts exceeds $3.30 billion, with the JV being 65% owned by Técnicas Reunidas and 35% by Sinopec Engineering Group, according to a press release.

The Spanish company will receive more than $2.15 billion of the total amount.

The project will be executed under two engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) contracts: Riyas NGL Fractionation Trains (Package 1) and Riyas NGL Common Facilities (Package 2), which includes utilities, storage, and export facilities.

The primary objective of the project is to enable the fractionation of NGLs, producing ethane, propane, butane, and pentane.

The new facilities developed by Técnicas Reunidas and Sinopec Engineering Group will fractionate 510,000 barrels per day (bpd) of NGLs. Package 1 includes two trains, each processing 255,000 bpd, with fractionation, treatment, dehydration, and refrigeration units.

Package 2 involves common facilities providing feed and product surge storage, chemical storage, and utilities such as steam and condensate recovery systems, utility water, plant and instrument air, nitrogen systems, machinery cooling water, drainage, and flare systems.

The project is expected to take approximately 46 months for Package 1 and 41 months for Package 2, employing up to 575 engineers, over 70% of whom will be from Técnicas Reunidas.

Técnicas Reunidas is a leading Spanish global engineering firm with over 60 years of experience in executing more than 1,000 industrial plants worldwide and a presence in 25 countries.

The company specialises in the design and construction of industrial plants for producing clean fuels, natural gas, and petrochemical products.

Earlier in July, Aramco awarded engineering agreement to Dar Al Handasah Consultants, Shair and Partners, a Sidara Company.

It is worth noting that Aramco logged a 14.44% annual decline in net profit to SAR 102.27 billion in the first quarter (Q1) of 2024 from SAR 119.54 billion in Q1-23.