Khalid al-Falih, Saudi Arabia’s energy, industry and mineral resources minister and Saudi Aramco chairman, has said that despite low oil prices, the company has reached record levels of oil production and gas processing in 2015
Last year, state oil giant Saudi Aramco announced the discovery of new oil and gas fields and the Kingdom is committed to continue investing in its energy sector to meet future demand, al-Falih added. “Saudi Arabia is committed to sustaining its investments in hydrocarbon-based energy to meet future demand and power sustainable economic growth at home and around the world.”
The three oilfields are Faskar, situated offshore in the Gulf near the Berri field; Janab, located east of the Ghawar field; and Maqam, located in the eastern Rub’al-Khali.
Saudi Aramco also found two new non-associated gas fields — Edmee, located west of Haradh, and Murooj in the Empty Quarter.
The company pumped an average of 10.2mn bpd in 2015, a new all-time record. Its exports averaged 7.1mn bpd, up from around 6.8 million bpd in 2014.
Saudi Aramco’s CEO told Reuters in an interview recently that the company is gaining market share and pushing for greater efficiency. As part of efforts to maximise revenues and expand market share Saudi Aramco is building new refineries to secure long-term agreements to sell its crude.
The company is also moving ahead with its programme to explore for gas in the shallow waters of the Red Sea as well as unconventional gas.
Its crude oil reserves were stable at 261.1bn barrels in 2015, while gas reserves rose to 8.4 trillion standard cu/m from 8.32 trillion standard cu/m in 2014.
