A $110 billion project to develop a gas field in eastern Saudi Arabia will turn the global market on its head and make the Kingdom a gas exporter, industry analysts told Arab News on Saturday.
The Jafurah field, which lies southeast of Ghawar, the world’s biggest conventional oil field — holds an estimated 200 trillion cubic feet of wet gas, and is capable of producing 130,000 barrels per day of ethane and 500,000 barrels per day of gas liquids and condensates.
Over 22 years, Jafurah could produce $8.6 billion a year in income and contribute $20 billion a year to the Kingdom’s GDP.
Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman ordered that the gas produced at the field should be prioritized for the domestic industry, but analysts believe there will be an overplus available for export.
The development of the Jafurah field will have subdivision not just for Saudi Arabia and its drive toward a cleaner energy mix, but also for the global gas market, with recent discoveries in the Eastern Mediterranean sharply reshaping economies from Cairo to Ankara and fueling fierce rivalries in the process.
“Saudi Aramco has already completed a number of gas processing projects and has been able to proudly meet its growing domestic gas requirement during past decades.
“The company is adding more than 2.5 billion cubic feet per day to its current gas plant capacity in a few year’s time, increasing the country’s gas processing capacity to 18.9 billion cubic feet per day by 2022.”