Unconventional gas projects will let Saudi Aramco divert more oil to exports

Saudi Aramco will join the United States in becoming an unconventional gas producer, as it prepares to commit gas supply to a major power plant project in northern Saudi Arabia, giving it more scope to boost lucrative oil exports.

Inspired by a shale gas boom in the United States, which has transformed the country from the world’s largest gas importer to a budding exporter, Saudi Arabia has been exploring its own large unconventional deposits and their potential.

“Only two years after launching our own unconventional gas programme, in the northern region of Saudi Arabia, we are ready to commit gas for the development of a 1,000 megawatt power plant, which will feed a massive phosphate mining and manufacturing sector,” Saudi Aramco chief executive Khalid al-Falih said on Monday.

“We are ready to start producing our own shale gas and unconventional resources in various types in the next few years and deliver them to consumers,” the head of Saudi Arabia’s national oil company said at the World Energy Congress in South Korea.

By unlocking its gas reserves, Saudi Arabia could use the fuel to power its domestic economy and allow more room for oil exports.

Saudi Aramco, the world’s largest oil exporter, has carried out appraisal drillings and piloting of three prospective areas for unconventional gas.