Aramco Announce New Discovery of Oil and Gas in Saudi Arabia

Saudi Aramco, which has been in an expansion mode, both at home and abroad, is investing billions of dollars in the oil and gas sector in the last few weeks and it has every reason to do so if the latest discoveries of and fossil fuels is any indication.

Aramco had 251.2 billion barrels of oil equivalent (BoE) in 2023, larger than the combined reserves of ExxonMobil, Chevron, Shell, BP and TotalEnergies. That includes191.35 billion barrels of crude and condensate and 33.8 billion BoE of natural gas as of December 2023.

In fact, the company had 207.5 trillion cubic feet of gas reserves at the end of 2023 and produced 10.67 billion cubic feet of gas last year.

With several oil producing countries pledging to achieve net zero emissions by 2070 and trying to move away from the Hydrocarbon revenues, Aramco aims to boost its gas production by 60% by 2030 from 2021 levels.

The oil giant commissioned its Hawiyah Gas Plant and began producing at its unconventional field in South Ghawar. It also started work on its giant Jafurah field, for which contracts were awarded two days ago, and is expected to begin producing gas next year.

Global Investments

Aramco has also made its first investment abroad in liquefied natural gas, buying a minority stake in MidOcean Energy for $500 million and also acquired 40% equity in Gas & Oil Pakistan Limited as part of its global retail expansion.

On Monday, H R H Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman bin Abdulaziz, Minister of Energy of Saudi Arabia, said that Aramco has discovered two unconventional oil fields, a reservoir of Arabian light oil, two natural gas fields, and two natural gas reservoirs.

The “Al-Ladam” unconventional oil field was discovered in the Eastern Province after the flow of very light Arabian oil in the (Ladam-2) well at a rate of 5,100 barrels per day, accompanied by about 4.9 million standard cubic feet of gas per day.

The “Al-Furooq” unconventional oil field was also discovered in the Eastern Province after the flow of very light Arabian oil from the (Al-Furooq-4) well at a rate of 4,557 barrels per day, accompanied by about 3.79 million standard cubic feet of gas per day.

The “Unaizah B/C” reservoir was also discovered in the “Mazalej” field in the Eastern Province, after the flow of light Arabian oil from the (Mazalej-62) well at a rate of 1,780 barrels per day, accompanied by about 0.7 million standard cubic feet of gas per day.

The Saudi Minister also said that as for natural gas discoveries, the “Al-Jahq” field was discovered in the Empty Quarter after natural gas flowed from the “Arab-C” reservoir in the Al-Jahq-1 well at a rate of 5.3 million standard cubic feet per day, and from the “Arab-D” reservoir in the same well at a rate of 1.1 million standard cubic feet per day.

In addition, the “Al-Katuf” field was discovered in the Empty Quarter after natural gas flowed in the (Al-Katuf-1) well at a rate of 7.6 million standard cubic feet per day, accompanied by about 40 barrels per day of condensates.

The “Hanifa” reservoir was also discovered in the “Assikara” field in the Empty Quarter after natural gas flowed in the (Assikara-6) well at a rate of 4.9 million standard cubic feet per day, and flowed in the same well from the “Al-Fadhili” reservoir at a rate of 0.6 million standard cubic feet per day, accompanied by about 100 barrels per day of capacitors, the Saudi Minister added.