Abqaiq and Eat It Too (or, More Geological Analysis of Potential Saudi Depletion

Abqaiq, an aging super giant Saudi Arabian oil field, has yielded over 11 billion barrels of oil since it was discovered in November of 1940. Its past provides us with the poster child for easy oil. The first well flowed at 9720 barrels per day, a far cry from today’s land finds where multiple horizontal laterals are necessary to coax lesser quantities from stingier reservoirs. But Abqaiq’s more recent past paints a more muddled picture, as efforts to extract the remaining oil have produced mixed results. More advanced recovery methods have been successfully employed in some parts of the field, but these have likewise revealed unexpected geological complexities which have in turn hindered recovery in other areas. Many of the new challenges encountered in Abqaiq are relevant to the future prospects for other fields, particularly Ghawar and Khurais. This article will evaluate the development status of the field using satellite imagery to identify recent drilling in correlation with several recent technical reports on new developments and strategies for maintaining production.

Abqaiq is situated to the northeast of the Ghawar oil field and to the southwest of Dhahran and the headquarters of Saudi Aramco. It has been producing oil for over 60 years, and although there is still more oil to be had, it has recently become more proclaimed as a supposed harbinger of continued success by Saudi Aramco. The past and predicted future production from Abqaiq was revealed in a Nansen Saleri (formerly of Saudi Aramco) presentation at CERA Week in February 2007 shown below (click for larger version)…

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