Offshore drilling in Saudi Arabia would see a slight increase this year but the state oil giant Saudi Aramco is expected to keep the rig count largely steady from last year, industry sources said.
The world’s largest oil exporter, which has 95 rigs now in operation, saw the number of rigs used drop in 2009 from 130 as a result of decreased activity in oil. In 2010, the number of rigs used was 96, an Aramco executive told Reuters last year.
“There is no significant change in the number of rigs. There will be more activity offshore, more activity in workover,” one source said.
In terms of offshore activity he was referring to the non-associated sour gas fields Arabiyah and Hasbah that Aramco plans to develop to feed its largest gas plant, Wasit.
“There’s a continuing shift to gas in exploration, on average 100 rigs. This might change if global consumption of oil increases,” a second source said.
But overall the drilling activity is in a healthier situation now that the oil prices have recovered after falling to a low of $32.40 in December 2008 as demand slumped.
Aramco manages 107 oil and gas fields, of which 32 are in production, it said in its 2009 annual review.
Most of the kingdom’s gas output is associated with oil output, so when Saudi Arabia curbs crude production with OPEC it loses some gas volumes.
To boost output regardless of crude supply policy, the Gulf Arab state is developing gas fields that are not associated with crude.
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