Aramco makes oil, gas discoveries near northern border

State-controlled Saudi Aramco has discovered one new oil field and one gas field in the north of the kingdom, close to its border with Jordan, oil minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman announced today.

At the Hadabat al-Hajra gas field, condensate-rich gas flowed from the al-Sara reservoir at the rate of 16mn ft3/d, with around 1,944 b/d of condensate, Prince Abdulaziz said, while at the Abraq al-Tulul oil field, unconventional Extra Light Arab crude flowed at a rate of 3,189 b/d, along with 1.1mn ft3/d of associated gas from the al-Shurura reservoir. The al-Qawwara reservoir at the same field yielded 2.4mn ft3/d of gas and 49 b/d of condensate.

Aramco will drill more wells to delineate the two fields and evaluate their potential and reserves, said the oil minister.

Aramco, which has 261.5bn bl of crude oil and condensate reserves and 237.4 ft3 of gas reserves, recently said it is focusing its exploration efforts on finding more gas for use in power generation and to provide feed for the country's petrochemicals industry.

The company is currently shutting in around 3.5mn b/d of crude production in line with its commitments under the ongoing Opec+ agreement that came into effect on 1 May. But it said earlier this year that it eventually plans to boost its crude capacity to 13mn b/d from 12mn b/d today.

By Samira Kawar