The Hawiyah Natural Gas Liquids Project aims to boost Saudi Arabia's petrochemical feedstock for the Kingdom's ambitious industrialization plans, but the project itself is giving a boost to Saudization efforts through a variety of direct and indirect job creation and training efforts that already have exceeded contract targets. In Milan, representatives from international engineering contractors Snamprogetti, JGC, General Dynamics, Yokogawa and GE Nuevo Pignone detailed recently their progress on the Hawiyah project, which will add hundreds of thousands of barrels of petrochemical feedstock daily to the flow to the industrial cities of Jubail on the Arabian Gulf and Yanbu on the Red Sea, Arab News reported today. The contractors, working with a team of Saudi Aramco engineers led by Mohammad Hamad from project management and Mohammad Al-Saeed of gas operations, reported progress on all fronts with a significant amount of work ahead of schedule. The contractors also noted they had already surpassed Saudization targets and expected to continue the trend. Snamprogetti project manager Enzo Erdoni discussed the status of the company's work on the gas trains, flare system and pipe rack. He said that the 27-month project would employ nearly 4,000 workers during the construction peak in 2006 with an estimated 14.2 million man-hours involved. --MORE 1002 Local Time 0702 GMT
