Saudi Aramco boosts drilling efforts to offset declining fields

Saudi Aramco’s mature crude oil fields are expected to decline at a gross average rate of 8%/year without additional maintenance and drilling, a Saudi Aramco spokesman said Tuesday.

But Saudi Aramco has taken a number of measures to offset a decline in output from the country’s aging oil fields, the spokesman added.

“A variety of remedial activities are always being taken in oil fields influencing their effective decline rates,” the spokesman said. “The drilling of additional development wells in the producing fields is Saudi Aramco’s standard practice to offset normal declines of older wells.”

Platts