Saudi, British Companies Seek to Explore Sustainable Partnerships

Participants in the Great Futures Initiative conference which was recently held in Riyadh (Asharq Al-Awsat)
Participants in the Great Futures Initiative conference which was recently held in Riyadh (Asharq Al-Awsat)
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Saudi, British Companies Seek to Explore Sustainable Partnerships

Participants in the Great Futures Initiative conference which was recently held in Riyadh (Asharq Al-Awsat)
Participants in the Great Futures Initiative conference which was recently held in Riyadh (Asharq Al-Awsat)

Several major national companies are participating in the UK-Saudi Sustainable Infrastructure Summit in London on June 24-26.

According to information made available to Asharq Al-Awsat, the Federation of Saudi Chambers is seeking to mobilize the largest possible number of companies specialized in sustainable infrastructure to explore partnerships with the United Kingdom in green construction, smart cities, and technologies.

The summit will address topics that touch on the importance of Saudi-British cooperation in developing and financing sustainable infrastructure and development of cities, in addition to green technology and renewable energy initiatives.

Trade Exchange

The event will be followed by a meeting of the sectoral working groups on June 25 and an evening celebration of the tenth anniversary of the British-Saudi Business Council. The Sports Investment Forum will be held on June 26.

The value of trade exchange between Saudi Arabia and Britain exceeded 17 billion pounds ($21 billion), while the two countries aim to increase the volume of bilateral trade to $37.5 billion by 2030.

In May, Riyadh hosted the Great Futures conference, one of the initiatives of the Saudi-British Strategic Partnership Council, which is chaired by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.

The conference sought to strengthen economic relations in several promising sectors, in addition to developing trade and mutual investment.

The two kingdoms explored opportunities through 60 initiatives in 13 sectors that enhance economic, trade and investment partnerships in all fields.

Speaking at the event in May, Saudi Minister of Commerce Dr. Majid Al-Qasabi said that the United Kingdom is the second largest exporter of services in the world, and that his country has promising opportunities and a will to diversify the economy.

He added that joint cooperation between the two countries covers various fields, with a focus on the commercial, financial, digital, cultural, educational and health sectors, as well as sports, tourism and entertainment.



Saudi Aramco Signs Second Phase of Its Jafurah Gas Field

This picture shows Aramco tower (C) at the King Abdullah Financial District (KAFD) in Riyadh on April 16, 2023. (AFP via Getty Images)
This picture shows Aramco tower (C) at the King Abdullah Financial District (KAFD) in Riyadh on April 16, 2023. (AFP via Getty Images)
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Saudi Aramco Signs Second Phase of Its Jafurah Gas Field

This picture shows Aramco tower (C) at the King Abdullah Financial District (KAFD) in Riyadh on April 16, 2023. (AFP via Getty Images)
This picture shows Aramco tower (C) at the King Abdullah Financial District (KAFD) in Riyadh on April 16, 2023. (AFP via Getty Images)

Saudi Arabia's state oil company Aramco said it has signed contracts for the second phase of the expansion of its Jafurah gas field and the third phase of expanding its main gas network.

The awarded contracts are worth more than $25 billion, and will target sales gas production growth of more than 60% by 2030, compared to 2021 levels.

Aramco President and CEO Amin H. Nasser said the 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,” he added.

According to Aramco, the Company has awarded 16 contracts, worth a combined total of around $12.4 billion, for phase two 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 Jafurah.

Another 15 lump sum turnkey contracts, worth a combined total of around $8.8 billion, have been awarded to commence the phase three expansion of the Master Gas System, which delivers natural gas to customers across the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The expansion, being conducted in collaboration with the Ministry of Energy, will increase the size of the network and raise its total capacity by an additional 3.15 billion standard cubic feet per day (bscfd) by 2028, through the installation of around 4,000km of pipelines and 17 new gas compression trains.

An additional 23 gas rig contracts worth $2.4bn 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 $1.63bn, have been awarded between December 2022 and May 2024.

Progress at Jafurah

The Jafurah unconventional gas field is estimated to contain 229 trillion standard cubic feet of raw gas and 75 billion Stock Tank Barrels of condensate. Phase one of the Jafurah development program, 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.