Saudi Arabia announces eight oil, gas discoveries

Jan. 6, 2009
Saudi Aramco reported Jan. 5 that it has discovered five more oil fields and three gas fields in the country's Eastern Province.

Eric Watkins
Oil Diplomacy Editor

LOS ANGELES, Jan. 6 -- Saudi Arabia's minister of petroleum and mineral resources Ali bin Ibrahim Al-Naimi reported Jan. 5 that the state-owned Saudi Aramco has discovered five more oil fields and three gas fields in the country's Eastern Province.

Al-Naimi said four of the oil fields are on land and one is in the Persian Gulf. They include Jaouf-11, Ramthan-9, Nayashin-1, Jareed-101, and Khorsaniya-114. The minister named the three gas fields—all offshore—as Arabiya-1, Rabib-1, and Hisbah-16.

Ramthan-9 is 400 km northwest of Dhahran, Jareed-101 is 130 km north of Dhahran, Khorsaniya-114 is 138 km northwest of Dhahran, and the gas fields Rabib-1 and Hisbah-16 are 125-200 km northeast of Dhahran.

Al-Naimi released first test production results from three of the wells, saying that Jaouf-11, about 300 km northwest of Dhahran, is producing 2,551 b/d of oil and 33,980 cu m/day of associated gas; Nayashin-1, 60 km northwest of Ramthan, is producing 2,076 b/d of oil; and the Arabiya-1 gas discovery 185 km northeast of Dhahran is producing 1.16 million cu m/day, he said.

Contact Eric Watkins at [email protected].