South Korea’s state-run utility Korea Electric Power Corp. (KEPCO) has won a $1.4-billion deal with Saudi oil giant Aramco to build and operate Phase 2 of Saudi Arabia’s Jafurah cogeneration power plant at the major gas project estimated to need $100 billion of total investments.
KEPCO’s cogeneration project entails building a 331-MW cogeneration facility capable of producing about 465 tons of steam per hour by June 2029. The plant is expected to supply electricity and steam to Aramco for 17 years, generating an estimated 2.1 trillion won, or $1.4 billion, in revenue over the contract period, the South Korean company said in a statement carried by the Korea Times.
Saudi Arabia has launched production at the giant Jafurah natural gas field, the largest non-associated gas development in the Kingdom, which is key to the Saudi goal to significantly boost its gas processing capacity to meet rising demand.
Saudi Aramco has completed the first phase of the Jafurah Gas Plant construction and launched production at the field with a capacity of 450 million cubic feet per day.
Sustainable production at Jafurah is expected to reach 2 billion cubic feet of gas per day after the project is completed by 2030.
With a price tag of a total of $100 billion, the Jafurah development is described as the largest unconventional gas development outside the United States. Its reserves are estimated at some 229 trillion cubic feet of natural gas plus 75 billion barrels of condensate.
When completed by 2030, the huge project is also expected to produce
420 million standard cubic feet per day of ethane, and 630,000 barrels per day of high-value liquids by 2030.
The Jafurah project is a cornerstone of Saudi Aramco’s strategic gas expansion, which focuses on meeting growing natural gas demand in the Kingdom while investing in global LNG markets.
By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com
