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MEOG POLICY MEOG
bilateral agreement also overlaps with maritime Aksoy added that France’s stance was danger-
zones Turkey agreed with Libya last year in a deal ously encouraging Greece and Cyprus to further
described as illegal by Greece. escalate tensions in the region.
Egypt’s parliament has already approved the Greece added on August 27 that it plans to
maritime agreement with Greece. extend its territorial waters in the Ionian Sea to
Turkish Foreign Ministry spokesman Hami 12 nautical miles from its coast, from six nauti-
Aksoy, meanwhile, claimed the deployment of cal miles, after the ratification of a maritime deal
French military aircraft in Cyprus violated trea- with Italy.
ties regarding the control and administration of Turkey has warned that a similar move by
the island after independence from Britain in Athens in waters east of Greece would be a cause
1960. for war, Reuters said.
PROJECTS & COMPANIES
Aramco discovers new
fields in northern Saudi
SAUDI ARABIA STATE-OWNED Saudi Aramco was reported considering increasing gas demand in the king-
this week to have discovered two new oil and gas dom,” CEO Amin Nasser said in mid-August.
fields in the north of the Kingdom, according to “The Northern area is declining, but there is
Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman pick-up in the Eastern province, the Jafurah
Al-Saud, who was quoted by government-run Basin and South Ghawar in conventional gas.”
SPA. In February, Aramco said that it planned to
He said that the Abraq al-Toloul unconven- spend $100bn on developing the field, with pro-
tional oilfield had begun flowing at a rate of 3,189 duction anticipated to begin in early 2024, ramp-
barrels per day (bpd) of Arab light crude, as well ing up to 2.2bn cubic feet (62mn cubic metres)
as 1.1mn cubic feet (31,000 cubic metres) per day per day of sales gas by 2036.
of associated gas flowing from the Al-Shurura Middle East Oil & Gas (MEOG) understands
reservoir. that while work has been ongoing at Jafurah
The field is also producing 2.4 mmcf (68,000 throughout the coronavirus (COVID-19) pan-
cubic metres) per day of gas and 49 bpd of con- demic, the asset’s timeline has been pushed
densate from the Al-Qawwara reservoir. The back slightly by the company’s massive CAPEX
field is located south-east of the northern city of reduction, but only by a matter of months.
Arar, close to the border with Iraq.
Meanwhile, the Hadabat al-Hajara gas field,
which is located in the Al-Jof region, started
flowing at a rate of 16 mmcf (396,000 cubic
metres) per day of gas from the al-Sara reservoir,
and 1,944 bpd of condensate.
Prince Abdulaziz added that Aramco would
continue drilling work on the assets in order to
determine total reserve volumes and production
capacities.
The discoveries have been made despite Ara-
mco having slashed spending for the year, with
much of the reduction believed to have come
from the company’s upstream division.
At the turn of the year, a key area of focus was
the expansion of unconventional gas production
capabilities, primarily from Jafurah, which at 200
trillion cubic feet (5.7 trillion cubic metres) is by
far the Kingdom’s largest unconventional gas
deposit.
As Riyadh seeks to reduce the approximately
3-3.5mn bpd of Saudi crude that is burnt at home
to provide electricity, the focus has turned to gas.
“Gas is a growth area for us, especially
Week 35 02•September•2020 www. NEWSBASE .com P9
