Saudi Aramco has agreed to extend the closing date for bidding for the construction of the Shaybah natural gas liquids (NGL) project, industry sources said on Wednesday.

Shaybah NGL is one of two new gas projects the state oil giant plans to develop to boost gas output and meet rising domestic demand.    

Aramco completed last year a massive crude oil expansion programme which included increasing capacity at Shaybah oilfield to 750,000 barrels per day (bpd).

The other gas plant, Wasit would be the kingdom's largest.

Engineering firms submitted their bids last week for Wasit.

US engineering firm KBR Inc is conducting engineering and design work and provides project management services for the Shaybah plant.

Bidding for the three process packages has been extended to December 29 from an original December 4 deadline upon the request of bidders.

"I think it is not enough, they (bidders) are expecting bidding to be (extended) to end of January," a source told Reuters.
   
Bidding for a cogeneration plant related to the plant was due on November 22 but was also extended to December 29, sources said.

Shaybah NGL, expected to be completed in the fall of 2014,  is designed to process 2.4 billion cubic feet per day (cfd) of low-sulphur sweet gas and extract 264,000 bpd of NGL which will be shipped to the Juaymah Gas Plant for further fractionation.

Aramco has given no cost estimate for the project but industry sources said it was estimated to cost $5 billion-$6 billion.
   
The project calls for the construction of a cogeneration facility, a gas treatment facility, an NGL recovery plant and facilities to handle gas.

Aramco plans to raise NGL production to about 1.2 million barrels per day (bpd) in 2015 from 937,000 bpd in 2010, its chief executive officer, Khalid Al-Falih said in April. - Reuters