Aramco to spend $110 bil on Saudi Arabia's largest unconventional gas field

Aramco plans to develop Jafurah, Saudi Arabia's largest unconventional and non-associated gas field that contains an estimated 200 trillion cubic feet of raw gas and whose production can be used as feedstock for petrochemical and metallic industries. 

Aramco expects production to start in 2024 and reach about 2.2 Bscf/d of gas sales by 2036, the company said in a statement on Saturday. The company is expected to spend $110 billion, state-owned Saudi Press Agency reported on Friday. In addition, the field is expected to produce some 425 Mscf/d of ethane, which represents 40% of current production in Saudi Arabia, and 550,000 b/d of gas liquids and condensate. Jafurah is located in the oil-rich eastern province and is 170 km long and 100 km wide. 
"The company expects that the development of Jafurah would have a positive financial impact in the long term, which will start to show on the company's financial results in phases concurrent to the field's development," Aramco said. 

Gas and liquids produced from the fields will be used in industries, power generation, desalination and mining, SPA said. Non-associated gas is found independent of oil fields and unconventional gas, such as shale gas, requires special technology to be produced. 

Saudi Arabia is ramping up exploration of gas as it seeks to free up oil for export rather than used domestically to generate electricity. 

UAE discovery 
Other Gulf countries have also recently discovered gas fields as they speed up exploration for gas. 

Abu Dhabi National Oil Co., the UAE's biggest oil producer, announced this month the discovery of a field with 80 Tscf of gas on the Dubai-Abu Dhabi border and will develop it with Dubai's gas supplier, Dubai Supply Authority. 

In January, Italy's Eni and the UAE's Sharjah National Oil Corp. said they discovered gas and condensates in Sharjah, the UAE's third largest emirate. SNOC said it was the first onshore Sharjah discovery in 37 years, with the well achieving flow rates of up to 50 Mscf/d of lean gas and associated condensate.