Saudi Aramco makes four oil and gas discoveries

Market: Crude oil, Natural gas
27/12/20

State-controlled Saudi Aramco has made four new oil and gas discoveries, the country's oil minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman said today.

The first discovery, comprising unconventional Extra Light Arab crude, was made at the al-Reesh field, northwest of Dhahran, where Aramco is headquartered. Extra Light crude and associated gas flowed from three wells at the field: 4,452 b/d of crude and 3.2mn ft3/d of gas from the al-Reesh 2 well; 2,745 b/d of crude and 3mn ft3/d of gas from al-Reesh 3; and 3,654 b/d of crude and 1.6mn ft3/d of gas from al-Reesh 4.

The discovery — in the Eastern Province of the country where Aramco's oil and gas facilities are located — is of special significance, Prince Abdulaziz said, because it proves that Arab Extra Light crude can be produced from the Tuweiq Mountain formation.

Arab Extra Light crude, which has an API of 36-40, is produced at the 1mn b/d Shaybah and 250,000 b/d Abqaiq fields.

Another oil discovery, al-Ajramiyah, was made northwest of the city of Rafhaa on Saudi Arabia's northern border, where a test well flowed at the rate of 3,850 b/d. The oil minister did not specify whether the al-Ajramiyah find comprises conventional or unconventional crude, nor did he provide its API.

Two further finds comprised non-conventional gas. The first, at the al-Minahhaz well, southwest of the giant Ghawar field, yielded 18mn ft3/d of gas and 98 b/d of condensate from the al-Sarrah reservoir. The Sahbaa well, south of Ghawar, yielded 32mn ft3/d of gas.

Aramco is now delineating the fields to determine their size and capacities, said Prince Abdulaziz.

Aramco, which has a crude production capacity of 12mn b/d and reserves of around 260bn bl, focuses its exploration activities on gas, rather than crude, and is working to include shale gas in its portfolio. The company produced 8.978bn ft3/d of natural gas in 2019, much of it conventional.

By Samira Kawar

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