Saudi Aramco, repeating long-announced plans, will increase production by yearend by a combined 850,000 b/d from its Khursaniyah, Nuayyim, and Shaybah fields, according to a senior official.
Amin Al Nasser, Aramco’s senior vice-president for exploration and production, said the company will bring Khursaniyah on stream by yearend, adding 500,000 b/d of oil production, while boosting output at Shaybah to 750,000 b/d from 500,000 b/d, and bringing newly developed Nuayyim field to 100,000 b/d.
Last year, reports said Saudi capacity increases during 2007-08 would come from the three fields, pushing the total to 11.4 million b/d by yearend 2008 from 10.8 million b/d currently (OGJ Online, Apr. 20, 2007).
Looking farther ahead, Al Nasser said his country’s output will increase by an additional 900,000 b/d in fourth-quarter 2009 when Aramco will bring on stream its large-scale Manifa heavy oil field, where construction is now 55% complete.
The field developments are part of Saudi Arabia’s plan to raise its daily production capacity, including output from the partitioned neutral zone shared with Kuwait, to 12.5 million b/d of crude oil by yearend 2009, from 11.3 million b/d now.
How to reduce prices
Al Nasser’s comments followed a 1-day summit in Jeddah of the world’s top oil producing and consuming nations, which discussed ways to reduce crude oil prices from the current $140/bbl.
Saudi Arabia’s oil minister Ali Al Naimi told the Jeddah meeting that his country plans to invest some $129 billion in oil exploration and production projects over the next 5 years and to expand pumping capacity to as high as 15 million b/d in the longer run, if necessary.
Last month, Saudi officials acknowledged that the Khursaniyah oil field expansion project, which it had planned to bring on stream last December, was still not producing oil, but that much of its 500,000 b/d capacity is ready.
According to Khalid al Falih, Aramco’s executive vice-president of operations, the delayed start-up was due to problems in the construction of a gas processing plant in the field. While the Saudi national firm could bring on most of Khursaniyah’s capacity if needed, according to Falih, he said the gas would have to be flared—something Aramco wanted to avoid.
“The gas plant is a major delay. It’s really a disappointment,” Falih said. “All of it will be ready in a few months.”