Aramco Discovers New Gas Field; Kingdom Plans Mega Petrochem Projects

RIYADH – Saudi Aramco the world’s largest oil corporation has discovered a new gas field in the Saudi territorial waters in the Arab Gulf, this was announced by minister of petroleum and mineral resources Ali Al-Naimi.

According to al-Naimi, on April 15, 2006, gas poured out of Karan well, about 160 kilometer north of Dhahran with an average of 40 million cubic feet per day of gas.

The productive capacity of the well is expected to jump to 80 million cubic feet per day.Saudi Aramco exported its first crude oil in 1939, shortly after the kingdom of Saudi Arabia was unified, according to a company statement. The company controls more than 25 percent of the global oil reserves, making it the world’s largest oil company. According to the latest statistics available, the company produced 8.6 million barrels of oil per day in 2004, with a total for the year of 3.15 billion barrels. Saudi Aramco also produced 387.3 million barrels of natural gas in 2004, the company said.

In other energy developments Saudi Arabia said on Sunday it would set up two petrochemical complexes worth 23 billion riyals ($6.1 billion) in the industrial hubs of Jubail and Yanbu.

Asharq Al-Awsat