Saudi Aramco meets bidders for $20 bln Yanbu FEED contract

Saudi Aramco is in talks with four companies that have submitted bids for the front-end engineering design (FEED) contract for its $20 billion Yanbu oil-to-chemical facility, Meed reported, citing an unnamed industry source.

The bidders include Fluor (US)/Jacobs (US), KBR (US), Wood Group (UK), and Worley Parsons (Australia).

Aramco officials have been meeting the bidders to discuss details of the contract over the past three weeks, the report said.

It cited the unnamed source saying there was no clarity on whether Aramco will be awarding the FEED and pre-FEED together or as separate contracts. 

The Yanbu oil-to-chemical facility will convert the 235,000 barrels per day (bpd) Yanbu refinery into an integrated refinery and petrochemicals complex.

The complex, the largest of its kind in the world, will process 400,000 bpd of crude oil into nine million tonnes a year of chemicals and base oils.

The complex is expected to include a steam cracker, mixed xylene, cumene, isobutene and petroleum coke, pitch facilities and an aromatics complex. It is slated for completion in 2025, the report added.