Saudi Aramco plans gas plant at Moneefa oilfield

SAUDI ARAMCO: New gas plant at Moneefa oilfield to process 1 billion cubic feet of gas per day. (Getty Images)

State hydrocarbon giant Saudi Aramco will build a gas plant at its Moneefa oilfield to process 1 billion cubic feet per day (cfd) of gas, an Aramco executive said on Saturday.

The plant will process gas from Aramco's newly discovered offshore gas fields Arabiyah and Hasbah, the executive said adding that it is a "sizeable reserve discovery."

Development of the Arabiyah and Hasbah gas fields, which are not associated with oil production, would supply around 1.8 billion cubic feet per day of gas, the Middle East Economic Survey reported in March.

According to Aramco's website, the Arabiyah-1 well was tested and flowed 41.1 million cfd and the Hasbah-16 well was tested and flowed 62.1 million cfd.

Saudi Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi announced discoveries at the fields in January.

To meet soaring demand for gas, Aramco is accelerating the development of fields non-associated with oil as it has to stick to its current output of 8 million bpd to match the decline in oil demand.

Aramco started to develop Karan, its first non-associated offshore gas field project, when it awarded contracts in February.

Demand for gas in the kingdom for power and industry is soaring due to an economic boom fuelled by the oil price rally of 2002-2008. As most Saudi gas is produced in association with oil output, volumes fluctuate with oil production.

Saudi oil output is at its lowest in over six years as the kingdom and OPEC curb output to match rapidly falling demand. This has left gas supply in the kingdom tight.  (Reuters)

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