JEDDAH, 19 December 2004 — Saudi Aramco has announced that it will inaugurate on Dec. 26 its Qatif producing plants to mark completion of an 800,000 barrel per day (bpd) development program.
The new Qatif program “will serve the Kingdom’s strategy of guaranteeing a continuous supply of energy to meet consumer demand worldwide,” Aramco President and CEO Abdallah S. Jum’ah said in a statement.“We are very much aware of our unique role and responsibility in global markets, and the completion of an enormous, technically challenging project like Qatif ahead of schedule, under budget and with an exemplary record of safety and quality, is yet another example of Saudi Aramco’s ability to design and implement world-class, world-scale projects to ensure a reliable supply of energy to the world,” Jum’ah said.
“In fact,” he added, “such ‘mega projects’ have become one of our defining characteristics as a corporation, and have helped us to maintain our leadership position in the petroleum industry.”
The plant will also provide 370 million standard cubic feet (10 million cubic meters) of associated gas, a company statement said.
Aramco said the onshore component of the project “has the capacity to provide 500,000 bpd of Arabian Light Crude.” The offshore Abu Safah field produces 300,000 bpd of Arabian Medium, it said.
Speaking at a conference at Catham House in London last month, Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources Ali Al-Naimi said Kingdom’s Qatif and Abu Safah projects had increased capacity by 800,000 bpd ahead of schedule.
He said: “We have also recently developed plans to increase gradually Saudi Arabia’s sustainable capacity to 12.5 million bpd and this will be on new and old oil fields in the next few years.” The minister added that there were “studies to raise capacity to 15 million bpd.”
Al-Naimi also said that Saudi Arabia was going to use more of its heavy sour crude in domestic refineries to free up more-in-demand light sweet crude for export.
The minister restated the Kingdom’s commitment to keeping spare capacity of 1.5 million bpd.
Saudi Aramco also said yesterday it remained “on alert at all times” to secure the world’s biggest oil fields.
“As the company responsible for the world’s largest proven reserves of oil, Saudi Aramco is keenly aware of its responsibility (to protect workers and oil fields),” Aramco said in a statement.
“For this reason, Saudi Aramco trains and equips a security force that is professional and responsive,” it said. “The company’s security is, in effect, ‘on alert’ at all times.”
Saudi Aramco estimates its crude oil reserves at about 260 billion barrels, a figure it says could go much higher because vast areas of the Kingdom have not been thoroughly explored. The company says it has never suffered a supply disruption during decades of operations.
— With input from agencies