Saudi Aramco has signed eight agreements with several companies worth $4.5 billion to develop oil and gas production facilities as part of a program to boost energy efficiency, diversify the economy, expand gas production and increase national content. Eng. Amin Hassan Al Nasser, President and CEO of Saudi Aramco, said during a ceremony to sign the agreements that part of the expansion of gas production will go to the water and power plants in Saudi Arabia and another part will go to the petrochemical industries. “The plan for Saudi Aramco is to raise the use of gas in desalination plants and electricity from 50 to 70 percent, which is one of the highest in the world,” Nasser said, stressing that petrochemical plants, which would be established in the coming period, would be provided with feedstock. Eight agreements were signed, including three agreements with Madrid-based Técnicas Reunidas under the Gas Compression Program in the Southern Area. The project will improve and sustain gas production from Haradh and Hawiyah fields for the next 20 years. The Hawiyah Gas Plant (HGP) Expansion Project will provide additional gas processing facilities to process raw sweet gas, to efficiently meet the Kingdom’s energy demand. The contract will be awarded to the Italian firm SNAMPROGETTI (Saipem). Other agreements signed on Thursday cover the Free Flow Pipeline Contract for Haradh and Hawiyah (with China Petroleum Pipelines Company); engineering and project management services for the Zuluf Field Development Program (with Jacobs Engineering Inc.); the Pipeline and Trunk line Project of Safaniyah Field (with Abu Dhabi-based National Petroleum Construction Company (NPCC); and the Slipover Platforms and Electrical Distribution Platform Project in Safaniyah Field (with McDermott Middle East).