Background: Saudi Aramco is developing the Qatif and Abu Sa'fah fields as a single large-scale project. The Qatif-Abu Sa'fah development lies in the Eastern province. The new onshore and offshore facilities along the Gulf coast have the capacity to produce, process and transport 500,000bpd of Arabian light crude from the Qatif field, and 300,000bpd of Arabian medium crude from the Abu Sa'fah field, as well as 370 million standard cubic feet per day of associated gas. Production from Qatif started in July 2004, three months ahead of schedule and production from Abu Sa'fah field began in September 2004. Qatif was the Saudi Aramco’s first field to produce Arab Light oil by blending Arab Extra Light and Arab Medium, and it was the first to be self-sufficient in power and steam, through the construction of an on-site co-generation plant. Exhaust from the power station is harnessed to produce steam for the plant.
Owner: Saudi Aramco
Oilfild Info: The Qatif field measures 10km x 50km (6.2 x 31 miles) and consists of seven oil-bearing reservoirs containing approximately 8.4 billion barrels. The Abu Sa’fah field measures 10km x 19km (6.2 x 11 miles) and has reserves of 6.1 billion barrels.
Scope of Work: The development includes three GOSPs, the installation of five new offshore platforms and upgrading ten existing platforms as well as building 30 drilling islands, constructing 450km of pipelines and 600km of fibre-optic cable and an Industrial Support Facilities Complex consisting of an administration building and maintenance workshops. The central processing facilities include GOSP-1, Abu Sa’fah GOSP, stabilisation, gas gathering and dehydration. In addition, it includes north water injection facilities with the capacity to inject 650,000 barrels of water per day.
Contractor: The contract for Qatif’s water injection pipelines and crude offshore pipelines was awarded to Global Al Rushaid Offshore Company in July 2007.
The scope of work included installation of water injection pipelines and crude oil flowlines, and other pipelines including subsea valve skids.
The GOSP was built by Chicago Bridge & Iron Company based on the contract awarded in March 2002.
The other contractors involved in the project were Snamprogetti, National Petroleum Construction (United Arab Emirates), Construction and Contracting Enterprise (CCE) and Suedrohrbau.