China-produced subsea cable on its way to oilfield expansion project off Saudi Arabia (Video)

China’s ZTT Submarine Cable & System has sent off the submarine cable destined for Saudi Aramco’s field expansion project towards the project site located offshore Dhahran, Saudi Arabia.

Zuluf, described as a giant offshore oil field located in the Arabian Gulf, approximately 240 kilometers north of Dhahran, was discovered in 1965 with production starting in 1973. State-owned Saudi Aramco is developing the Zuluf Oilfield Expansion project to increase production capacity from the field.

The expansion includes the development of a new, fourth offshore gas oil separation plant (GOSP), as well as the installation of new subsea pipelines and cables, and will increase the production capacity of the field from 800,000 barrels per day (bpd) of Arabian medium crude oil to 1.4 million barrels per day (Mbpd) of heavy crude oil.

ZTT reported that on October 17 the Zuluf offshore oil project achieved a critical milestone with the load-out and delivery of 230 kV submarine cable in Nantong, China, after which the cable started its journey to the project site off Dhahran.

Cable load out, delivery ceremony and departure

Watch video here

“Spanning 154KM, this cable forms the lifeline of the Zuluf Offshore Field, powering essential operations,” ZTT said. “The client was exceptionally pleased with the product, which sailed off to the deployment location. This achievement set a new benchmark for quality, efficiency, and sustainable offshore energy infrastructure.”

Zuluf, together with two other fields Marjan and Safaniya, is considered to be among the largest offshore oil fields in Saudi Arabia and Safaniya Offshore Producing Department (SOfPD), which falls under Saudi Aramco, has launched multiple initiatives to curb energy consumption in the areas, aligning with Aramco’s long-term commitment to achieving net zero emissions by 2050.

SOfPD’s initiative at the Zuluf field includes electrification for electrical submersible pumps, and once the evaluation of the ZG-4 power gas turbines showed they were aged, obsolete, and operating at low efficiency, a plan was established to hire a third party for rental power generation to meet the electrical energy requirements for Zuluf GOSP’s power recovery with diesel being used as a source of fuel for rental power generators.

The Zuluf crude oil increment is expected to provide a central facility to process 600,000 bpd of crude oil from the Zuluf field by 2026.

Saipem was recently hired to deliver the engineering, procurement, construction, and installation (EPCI) of three jackets, five production deck modules (PDMs), 22 kilometers of subsea rigid pipelines with a diameter of 16 inches, 5 kilometers of subsea flexible pipelines, and 35 kilometers of subsea power cables for the Zuluf and Safaniyah oil fields.