Saudi Aramco has awarded a contract for the Karan gas field to McDermott International Inc.’s J. Ray McDermott. The turnkey contract provides for the manufacture and installation of four platforms and the construction of a 110km-long undersea pipeline to carry the gas from the Karan field. The gas from Karan will be processed at the onshore Khursaniyah gas plant with start-up production scheduled for mid-2011. Karan will produce 1.5 billion cu/ft per day, and will process about 1.8 billion cu/ft per day. Aramco has awarded onshore contracts for the project to Britain-based Petrofac Ltd (PFC.L) and South Korea-based Hyundai Engineering and Construction Co Ltd. The cost of the Karan project was reported to have fallen by at least 20% from previous estimates that pegged it as high as USD 5 billion.
