Aramco has successfully produced the first unconventional tight gas from its South Ghawar operational area two months ahead of schedule. This development supports Aramco’s strategy to increase gas production by more than half, over 2021 levels, through 2030, subject to domestic demand.
Saudi Arabia’s oil giant Aramco said on Tuesday it produced the first tight gas at South Ghawar, as it pushes a strategy to boost gas production.
Tight gas refers to a type of unconventional gas – which requires advanced extraction methods – found in reservoir rocks with low permeability, most often sandstone.
The facilities at South Ghawar have a raw gas processing capacity of 300 million standard cubic feet per day (scfd) and a condensate processing capacity of 38,000 barrels per day (bpd), the Saudi state oil giant said.
To meet rising natural gas demand, Aramco plans to more than double the overall processing capacity and achieve South Ghawar’s goal of delivering 750 million scfd of raw gas in the near future.
Successful production of tight sand gas at South Ghawar represents Aramco’s second unconventional gas stream, after production commenced at the North Arabia field in 2018 with the delivery of 240 million scfd to customers in Wa’ad Al-Shamal. Work is simultaneously progressing at the giant Jafurah unconventional gas field, which is the largest liquid-rich shale gas play in the Middle East.
Nasir Al-Naimi, Aramco Upstream President, said: “This first production of unconventional tight gas from South Ghawar is a milestone that demonstrates real progress on our gas expansion strategy, which we believe has a role to play in meeting the Kingdom’s needs for lower-emission energy and supporting growth in the chemicals sector.”
