At least four leading international contracting players or consortiums have emerged as the potential frontrunners for multiple offshore engineering, procurement, construction and installation contracts from Saudi Aramco for the expansion of its giant Safaniyah oilfield.

The new expansion phase at Safaniyah, the largest offshore oilfield in the world is crucial to Aramco’s ambition to increase its oil production capacity to 13 million barrels per day by 2027, up from the existing 12 million bpd.