Haradh-3 To Be At 300,000 B/D Capacity By April, Says Naimi
The Haradh-3 gas-oil separation plant (GOSP) will be operating at full capacity of 300,000 b/d by 1 April, Saudi Oil Minister Ali Naimi said on the sidelines of the OPEC conference in Vienna on 8 March. First oil started flowing through Haradh-3 in February (MEES, 13 February). The plant also has capacity to handle 140mn cfd of associated gas. Mr Naimi said the latest Haradh increment would boost Saudi crude production capacity to 11.3mn b/d – adding that at present the kingdom was producing 9.5mn b/d.
Hawiyah NGL Project Ahead Of Schedule
Saudi Aramco announced on 8 March that the Hawiyah NGL Recovery Project would start production by October 2007, one month ahead of schedule. When completed, the plant will process nearly 4bn cfd of natural gas and yield 310,000 b/d of NGL. The new Hawiyah plant is being built by Japan’s JGC Corporation (MEES, 5 September 2005).
ConocoPhillips And Total In Line For Refinery Deals
Mr Naimi told reporters in Vienna on 8 March that ConocoPhillips had presented the best bid thus far for a 400,000 b/d capacity export oil refinery planned for Yanbu' on the Red Sea coast. Saudi Aramco last year announced plans for the new facility which is expected to cost $4-5bn (MEES, 11 April 2005). At the same time he said Total was the best bidder for a 400,000 b/d export refinery planned for al-Jubail on the Gulf coast at similar cost. In an interview with al-Hayat on 6 March, the Saudi minister said the talks with Total were at “an advanced stage.” Speaking in Vienna, Mr Naimi said final announcements for the Yanbu' and al-Jubail refinery contracts could come later this year.
Oil Sector Security Boost
On the question of the security measures in place in the oil sector after the attempted bombing of the Abqaiq processing plant, Mr Naimi said security had been “enhanced” in the wake of the incident. He added that security guards had been supplied with “powerful weapons” and could defend facilities against attacks from the air.
