Saudi Aramco invites bids for Manifa water injection contract: report

State- owned oil giant Saudi Aramco has invited firms to bid for a contract to upgrade the water injection system at the Manifa oilfield, located in eastern Saudi Arabia, MEED reported on Sunday.

The scope of work includes the installation of a 42-inch subsea pipeline and a 42-inch onshore pipeline, according to a tender document issued by the company.

Bids are to be submitted by Sep. 20, 2017.

Aramco aims to complete the project by March 31, 2019, according to the tender document.

Saudi Arabia’s Gulf Consolidated Contractors Co, India’s Larsen & Toubro, and South Korea’s Hyundai E&C are among the companies that have prequalified for the project, the agency reported, citing industry soruces.

However, Hyundai E&C has declined to bid on the project, one source said.

Manifa is one of Aramco's biggest oilfields and latest expansions, with a production capacity of 900,000 barrels per day. Aramco brought the field online in two phases.

The six-reservoir oilfield measures about 45 kilometers in length and 18 km in width. It lies both onshore and offshore under a relatively shallow 15 meters of water.

In July, International Oil Daily reported that production at the oilfield had been hit by a technical issue that would affect output.

“Corrosion control in the water injection system is not a technical challenge but it can be expensive to repair the water injection lines,” Sadad Al-Husseini, a former executive vice president at Saudi Aramco, told Reuters at the time.

The field could be shut down for maintenance, but this would not affect Aramco’s exports, he added.