Analysis: Saudi Aramco's Appetite for Jackups

The world’s largest oil company in terms of proven reserves, Saudi Aramco is the state-run company for the Middle Eastern country of Saudi Arabia. Onshore and off, Saudi Aramco has a total of 100 major oil and gas fields and 267 billion barrels of proven oil reserves.

In fact, the NOC holds the world’s largest offshore field, Safaniya, with an estimated 20 billion barrels of oil and daily production of 1 MMbopd. Other major producing offshore fields for Saudi Aramco include Zuluf, which has a daily production capacity of 500,000 bopd, and Marjan, which produces 270,000 bopd.

In a five-year plan starting in 2009, Saudi Aramco is increasing drilling exploration and investment in the oil sector, which includes increasing drilling by a third. A priority has been placed on offshore areas, and the company is presently investing in an effort to increase production capacity by 20%. That includes both development to achieve first production and re-development of producing fields. Major upstream projects include works on offshore fields Berri, Zuluf and Safaniyah. Also under development, Manifa is expected to hold between 10 and 20 billion barrels of oil and is scheduled to come on-stream by the third quarter of 2011.

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