Saudi Arabia is forging ahead with plans to double gas production with movement on its Fadhili mega project.
The French energy giant Engie announced on Saturday it had secured financial close for the US$1.2 billion cogeneration plant on the kingdom’s Fadhili independent power project. This will provide electricity to Saudi Electricity Company (SEC) while steam and feedwater will be go to Saudi Aramco, the kingdom’s national oil company.
The country has been making progress toward its National Transformation Plan, which includes doubling its gas production to more than 17 billion standard cubic feet per day by 2020. The UK-based Oxford Institute for Energy Studies said most of this gas will go into the power sector, where over 13 gigawatts of gas-fired plants are due in the next few years.
“The Fadhili project is in line with our strategy that aims at concentrating on low carbon dioxide activities via renewable energies and gas for power generation,” said Isabelle Kocher, the chief executive of Engie.
The combined cycle power plant uses both gas and steam to produce up to 50 per cent more power compared to a traditional plant. The Fadhili facility will have a capacity of 1.5gigawatts, which is enough power for 1.4 million people, while also producing 1,447 tonnes per hour of steam and 768.8 tonnes per hour of feedwater.
Once the plant is completed in two years, Engie, the world’s largest independent power producer, will operate four plants in Saudi Arabia.
“At the completion of the plant scheduled by end 2019, Engie’s gross production capacity will be over 7GW of electricity,” said Sebastien Arbola, Engie’s regional chief executive. “We firmly believe in the energy and water opportunities in Gulf countries, which offer long-term offtake contracts within a well-developed legal framework in a region with strong growth.”
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