Aramco to Complete 1st Phase of Gas Pipeline Expansion by Year end

Saudi Aramco will complete the first phase of expansion of country’s main gas pipeline network by the end of this year, it said in the latest issue of its weekly magazine, the Arabian Sun.

With domestic demand for natural gas expanding, the company has adopted a two-phase plan to expand the Master Gas System (MGS). Once the first phase is complete, the capacity of MGS will increase to 9.6bn ft³/d. The capacity will further expand to 12bn ft³/d after the second phase is complete in 2019.

“The first phase was accelerated to meet the scheduled commissioning date of the Rabigh II Independent Power Plant (Rabigh-2 IPP) at the beginning of this year to avoid burning high-valued liquid fuels,” Aramco said.

The project includes the installation of 960 km of 56” pipelines. The pipeline project includes mainline valve stations, scraper-launcher and receiver facilities, hot tap installations with jumpovers, black powder filters, and custody metering facilities. The scope also includes two booster compressor stations at East-West Pump Stations 3 and 5, which include inlet and outlet piping, black powder filters, gas meters, multiple compressor units and outlet gas coolers. Buildings will house gas measurement instruments, a compressor and drive unit, as well as control rooms and operations.

The acting project manager, Saleh AlWadie, said, “This project is one of the strategic transformation projects in the Kingdom that targets displacing oil with gas, and linking the Kingdom’s East and West Coasts through the MGS. It will save more than $500,000 worth of crude oil that would have been burned to generate power. This is the first time in the history of Saudi Aramco that we have established booster gas compressor station facilities.”

Shardul Sharma