SIEMENS has announced it has clinched a contract worth $966 million from Saudi Aramco to supply key components for a major combined-cycle power plant in Saudi Arabia.

The power station is designed to deliver electricity to the Jizan Industrial City area in the southwest of the country and to the refinery of Jizan, which will additionally be supplied with process steam. The plant will be fuelled with gasified refinery residues, which contributes greatly to the preservation of the country’s energy resources. With an installed capacity of 4,000 megawatts, Jizan will be the largest gasification-based power plant site in the world.

“This is not only the largest order to date for Siemens from Saudi Aramco, but also a significant milestone in our successful cooperation with the biggest oil company in the world, and is proof of the success of our regionalisation strategy,” declared Michael Suess, member of the managing board of Siemens AG and CEO of its energy sector.

Siemens’ scope of supply includes 10 gas turbines specially designed for synthesis gas (syngas) and diesel fuel, of which six will be manufactured in Saudi Arabia; five steam turbines, 15 generators and 10 heat recovery steam generators. The gas turbine model (SGT6-5000F) to be used in Jizan is optimally suited for operation with syngas from gasification plants and has a successful track record of more than nine million operating hours.

“This new, highly efficient combined cycle power plant is an important part of our major project in the new economic zone in Jizan, and for this we must have efficient and reliable technology. We are looking forward to working with Siemens on this strategic project,” said Aramco Overseas Company managing director, Nabil Aldabal.

The Siemens headquarters in Munich

“Our flexible, efficient and proven technology will further contribute to support Saudi Arabia with its ambitious industrialisation and economic development plans,” underlined Suess. Saudi Arabia, with its large oil and natural gas reserves, is the largest economy in the Gulf region and a significant growth market for efficient fossil power generation. In this decade it is anticipated that Saudi Arabia´s population will increase from about 28 million now to 34 million in 2020. To meet the predicted annual rise in power demand of about 6 per cent per year, the installed power generation capacity will have to at least double within 10 years from 67 gigawatts in 2012 to an estimated 140 gigawatts in 2020.

Siemens Saudi Arabia is investing in this growth market by constructing a facility in Dammam for the manufacturing of gas turbines and related equipment and for the servicing of this equipment in the country. Six of the ordered combustion gas turbines will be manufactured at this new facility.

The Jizan power plant comprises five units. Commissioning of the first two blocks is scheduled for spring 2016. The next block will follow in spring 2017. The other units will go online successively after this at intervals of a few months each.

The Siemens energy sector is the world’s leading supplier of a broad spectrum of products, services and solutions for power generation in thermal power plants, for using renewables, for power transmission in grids and for the extraction, processing and transport of oil and gas. In fiscal 2012 (ended September 30), the energy sector had revenues of 27.5 billion euros ($36.4 billion) and received new orders totaling approximately 26.9 billion euros and posted a profit of 2.2 billion euros. On September 30, 2012, the company’s energy sector had a work force of almost 86,000.

Siemens AG (Berlin and Munich) is a global powerhouse in electronics and electrical engineering, operating in the fields of industry, energy and healthcare as well as providing infrastructure solutions, primarily for cities and metropolitan areas. The company is the world’s largest provider of environmental technologies. Around 40 per cent of its total revenue stems from green products and solutions. In fiscal 2012, which ended on September 30, 2012, revenue from continuing operations totaled 78.3 billion euros and income from continuing operations 5.2 billion euros. At the end of September 2012, Siemens had around 370,000 employees worldwide on the basis of continuing operations.