Saudi Aramco crude increment project due by year-end

23 October 2018
Aramco CEO says project at Khurais oil field is part of programme to maintain spare capacity

Saudi Aramco’s crude increment programme at the Khurais oil field will be completed by the end of the year, CEO Amin Nasser has said at the Future Investment Initiative (FII).

“The Khurais maintain potential project, with 300,000 barrels a day (b/d), will be coming on stream by the end of the year,” Nasser told the Riyadh audience on 23 October.

Aramco undertook work on the $3bn megaproject in the last quarter of 2014.

Aramco has awarded main engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contracts for several Khurais packages, including to Italy’s Saipem and local firm Arkad Engineering & Construction.

The project is part of Aramco’s ‘maintain potential’ programme for sustaining spare capacity.

“We have 12 million b/d of sustained capacity, backed by one of the largest and high-quality reserve in the world. Aramco continued investments during the downturn that started in 2015, when the rest of the industry stopped investments,” Nasser said.

“We have a lot of projects going on in Zuluf, Marjan and Berri field developments. So we have kept investing to maintain potential. Our decline rates are one of the lowest globally. The 12 million b/d sustained capacity is solid and can be sustained in the long-term,” he said.

The objective is to increase production capacity at the Khurais Central Processing Facilities by 300,000 b/d from its current capacity of 1.2 million b/d, as well as to enhance production from the Mazalij and Abu Jifan fields with the installation of a satellite Gas Oil Separation Plant.

Khurais is located adjacent to the Ghawar oil field, one of the world’s largest, in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia.

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