Baker Hughes will supply 17 pipeline centrifugal compressors driven by aeroderivative gas turbines for Phase 3 of Saudi Arabia’s Master Gas System (MGS). The Aramco project includes a new 2485-mile (4000-km) pipeline designed to increase domestic gas distribution and contribute to a reduction of carbon emissions and oil consumption.
The MGS is one of the world’s largest hydrocarbon networks. It came online in 1982, with Berri, Shedgum, and Uthmaniyah gas plants supplying up to 2 Bscf/d (56.6 × 106 m3/d) of gas to the MGS network. Due to the Kingdom’s increased energy demand, Aramco has continued to expand the MGS network by building new gas processing plants and facilities. Hawiyah gas plant, completed in 2001, was the first plant to be built exclusively to capture non-associated gas. That plant was followed by Haradh, Wasit, and Fadhili plants.
The company continued to expand the MGS pipeline and compression capacity through MGS Phase 1 to reach gas production capacity of up to 9.6 Bscf/d (271.8 × 106 m3/d). In 2015, the MGS expansion continued through Phase 2, increasing the total MGS network capacity to 12.5 Bcf/d (353.9 × 106 m3/d) by adding more than 500 miles (805 km) of 56-in. (1422-mm) diameter pipelines along the East-West corridor and adding a new gas compression plant. Baker Hughes delivered 18 aeroderivative gas turbine-driven centrifugal compressors for Phases 1 and 2.
In 2022, the Ministry of Energy unveiled plans to start the new Jafurah gas plant, which will increase Aramco’s gas production capacity by 3 Bscf (84.9 × 106 m3) of unconventional gas. The Jafurah field holds an estimated 200 Tscf (5.6 × 1012 m3) of unconventional gas and is capable of producing 130,000 barrels per day of ethane and 500,000 barrels per day of gas liquids and condensates. Phase 3 of the MGS is required to meet the increased transmission requirements to supply existing customers and more than 30 new industrial facilities in the Eastern, Central, and Western regions with natural gas. According to Aramco, MGS Phase 3 will result in more than 1 million barrels of liquid fuel replacement by 2030, as a number of power plants convert from oil to natural gas.
