Saudi Aramco awarded on Tuesday to Baker Hughes the first integrated services contract for capacity expansion of its large offshore Marjan Oilfield, the Saudi firm’s biggest upstream development this year.
It is the first of three major plans aimed at expanding its offshore production capacity to offset natural declines at maturing fields that have been operating for decades.
Baker Hughes will provide drilling services, coiled tubing services and drilling fluids engineering services at the Marjan Oilfield that has a current production capacity of 500,000 bpd, Oil Price reported.
Under the contract, Baker Hughes will start work as early as this month with the aim of increasing the field’s capacity and works will include logging-while-drilling, reservoir navigation services and rotary steerable services, Aramco said in a statement on Tuesday.
“Marjan Oilfield is one of the major upstream developments this year that will contribute to the kingdom’s oil production strengths, helping maintain capacity and meet domestic and global demand,” said Mohammed Y. Al Qahtani, senior vice president for upstream affairs at Saudi Aramco.
Total expansion and development works for all contractors at the oilfield are expected to exceed US$10 billion and plans aim to raise the production capacity by 300,000 bpd from the current 500,000 bpd, Reuters reported earlier this year.
Marjan is the first of three major offshore field expansions that Saudi Arabia plans. The other two will be for the Zuluf and Berri offshore fields, which currently have a capacity of 800,000 bpd and 200,000 bpd, respectively, S&P Global Platts data show.
The three major offshore expansion plans are expected to add 1 million bpd of production capacity by 2023. This could offset declining production from the aging fields in Saudi Arabia, which continue to be viewed as the swing oil producer in the global market.
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