Saudi Aramco has begun construction of a gas plant in an industrial region of northern Saudi Arabia to handle production from Midyan gas-condensate field under development in the Red Sea.

The company let a contract for engineering, procurement, and construction to Larsen & Toubro Arabia, Dammam, for a plant able to produce and process 75 MMcfd of nonassociated gas and 4,500 b/d of condensate. The plant will be about 195 km west of Tabuk and 135 km north of Duba.

Two 98-km pipelines will deliver sales gas and stabilized hydrocarbon liquids to a power plant near Duba.  Earlier, Saudi Aramco has drilled seven delineation and development wells in shallow and deep water in a first phase. Bathymetric readings indicate that water in the area, south of the Gulf of Aqaba, is as deep as 1,200 m. A late 2012 discovery well in the Red Sea 26 km northwest of Duba flowed gas at the rate of 10 MMcfd at a depth of 17,700 ft, the Saudi press quoted Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi as saying.