Saudi Arabian Oil Co. jumped its crude oil production 29% to an average 6,257,600 b/d last year.
That was Saudi Arabia's response to Iraq's Aug. 2, 1990, invasion of Kuwait and the ensuing Persian Gulf crisis with its United Nations embargo on Iraqi and Kuwaiti oil exports.
It was Saudi Aramco's biggest average crude oil volume since the 6,327,220 b/d gauged in 1982, according to the company's 1990 annual report.
Average peak flow of 9,016,952 b/d occurred in 1977.
Production volume for 1989 averaged 4,863,533 b/d of crude.
Saudi Aramco also produced 533,229 b/d of natural gas liquids and ran 538,988 b/d of crude oil and NGL through its Ras Tanura refinery.
Both were gains from 420,946 b/d and 484,435 b/d, respectively, for 1989.
By the end of 1990 Saudi Aramco's maximum sustained production capability was 8.5 million b/d of crude. To meet long term demand, it decided to advance the timetable and increase the scope of a crude oil expansion program adopted in 1989.
Reserves at the end of the year were 257.9 billion bbl of crude and 180.5 tcf of dissolved, associated, and nonassociated natural gas, compared with 257.5 billion bbl and 180.355 tcf at yearend 1989.
PRODUCTION INCREASE
To fill the postinvasion gap in Persian Gulf oil supply Saudi Aramco recommissioned 146 oil wells and 12 mothballed gas/oil separator plants (GOSPS) in Ghawar, Harmaliyah, and Khurais fields in the southern area.
Recommissioning of associated facilities for gas compression and wet crude handling also helped provide more than 1 million b/d of added Arab extra light, light, and medium crude.
Saudi Aramco drilled 51 oil wells in the southern area to sustain normal production rates. It also connected 25 new wells and 45 older wells to Ghawar and Abqaiq Gosps.
Twenty-one water injection wells were drilled in Ghawar and Abqaiq, including six gravity injection wells in the Abqaiq area.
Potential to produce nonassociated gas increased by about 80 MMcfd with construction of a flowline to a new Khuff gas well in Ain Dar, the first nonassociated gas well outside the Shedgum and Uthmaniyah areas.
In Saudi Aramco's northern area, production of Arab extra light, light, medium, and heavy crudes was increased by start-up of five offshore GOSPs in Safaniya, Zuluf, and Marjan fields.
Onshore, GOSPs in Khursaniyah, Qatif, and Abu Hadriya fields also were placed in service by yearend.
Saudi Aramco said those measures helped increase crude oil production in the northern area by 1.78 million b/d.
In the offshore Berri field, three production platforms were installed to allow crude production from tighter pay sections.
Increasing production also required a program of demothballing pipelines and tielines. Lines totaling 245 miles were returned to operation, serving 15 GOSPs in the northern and southern areas, out of a program for recommissioning 410 miles of line.
By the end of the year Saudi Aramco had 15 operational rigs-11 drilling onshore, two for onshore workovers, and two for offshore drilling and workovers.
During the year the company completed 102 wells-95 development wells and seven wildcats -and conducted 110 workovers.
It signed contracts five major engineering and design firms for management of major projects such as oil and gas plants in the southern and northern areas, projects to maintain production potential of offshore fields, pipeline construction, and field development in the Central Province.
It obtained early funding covering detailed design and long lead time procurement for 10 projects in those programs. At the end of the year, work on six of the projects was well under way.
Detailed design of a project to increase capacity of the east-west crude oil pipeline was complete by the end of the year, and work had begun on the project.
This work involves adding two pumps at each of the 11 pump stations on the line from the Eastern Province to Yanbu on the Red Sea coast, boosting capacity of the line to 5 million b/d from the current 3.2 million b/d of Arab light.
EXPLORATION RESULTS
Saudi Aramco drilled five discoveries in the Central Province in 1990, following two oil strikes at Hawtah and oil and gas at al-Dilam in 1989.
The 1990 discoveries at Raghib, Nuayyim, Hazmiyah, and Ghinah produced light sweet crudes with gravities of 44-52.9. Hilwah was a sweet gas and condensate discovery.
Twenty wells-seven wildcats and 13 delineation wells-were drilled in the Central Province.
Six of the delineation wells were in Hawtah field, which is planned for development. In November a well was spudded at Nuayyim as a deeper pool test to basement. At the end of the year four rigs were drilling in the region.
The company said it made extensive use of direct detection techniques it developed to identify oil and gas zones prior to drilling.
During the year Saudi Aramco was also given responsibility for evaluating the hydrocarbon potential of the Red Sea coastal plain and territorial waters.
A land seismic survey started in the Yanbu area late in the year.
Saudi Aramco's original operating area covers the 164,255 sq km onshore and offshore Retained Area 1 in the Eastern province.
MANUFACTURING OPERATIONS
In the southern area, Saudi Aramco gas processing plants at Shedgum and Uthmaniyah processed a combined average 2.8 bcfd of associated and nonassociated gas in 1990, up from 2.5 bcfd in 1989.
The plants were near maximum combined capacity of 3.4 bcfd part of the year, particularly summer.
At Abqaiq, crude oil processing capacity rose by 1.25 million b/d and associated gas capacity was up 140 MMcfd. Capacity for handling Arab extra light at Abqaiq increased by 70,000 b/d to 520,000 b/d.
The Berri gas processing plant processed 516 MMcfd of associated gas during 1990, up from 395 MMcfd in 1989. Saudi Aramco demothballed a sulfur remelting unit at the plant.
Ras Tanura refinery production averaged 356,533 b/d. The charge rate went as high as 510,000 b/d during the second half of the year to meet the increased demand for motor gasoline and jet fuel caused by the allied coalition's military buildup after Aug. 2.
The refinery manufactured 192,509,257 bbl of products, broken out into NGL 68,148,291, gasoline 21,164,154, jet fuel 1,383,044, fuel oil 49,587,985, naphtha 3,271,41 1, kerosine 7,425,219, diesel fuel 41,361,066, and asphalt and miscellaneous products 168,087.
Copyright 1991 Oil & Gas Journal. All Rights Reserved.
