Saudi Aramco completes drilling on $10bn Khurais field

FIELD OPS: Drilling on the new Khurais oil field in Saudi Arabia has been completed ahead on schedule. (Getty Images)

State oil giant Saudi Aramco said on Wednesday it had completed drilling on the largest new field in its plan to raise crude capacity to 12.5 million barrels per day (bpd) by the end of this year.

The $10 billion Khurais project is one of the largest ever single additions to global oil production capacity and the largest integrated oilfield project taken on by Aramco to date.

Khurais will add 1.2 million bpd to the kingdom's capacity, which currently stands at around 11.3 million bpd. The field will produce Arab Light crude, valued by refiners as relatively easy to convert to transport fuels.

"The drilling was slated to take three years, but improvements in operations and engineering mean the job was done in February - 10 months ahead of schedule," Aramco said in a statement on Wednesday.

The field will give OPEC's most influential member, Saudi Arabia, around 4.5 million bpd of spare capacity.

The kingdom pledged to pump under 8 million bpd in February, below its OPEC target, as it raced to reduce supply and match it with falling demand.

The Khurais project will handle crude from three oil fields, Khurais, Abu Jifan and Mazalij.

The giant Khurais processing plant will handle oil from the Abu Jifan and Mazalij fields, as well as Khurais. Together, the fields will produce more oil than each of the two smallest members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, Qatar and Ecuador. (Reuters)

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