Ninth globally.. The Kingdom achieves steady increases in natural gas production

The Kingdom is the ninth largest natural gas producing country, and in the past five years it has witnessed an increase in its production by more than 10%, reaching a record level of 105 billion cubic meters of energy fuel.
In 1975, Saudi Aramco began developing its Master Gas Network, a massive network of pipelines linking gas production and processing facilities throughout the Kingdom.
Since its inception more than 4 decades ago, this network has been the main pillar of the Kingdom’s industrial network in order to achieve development and economic diversification.

Natural gas is not only used for power generation, but is also an essential feedstock for the production of ammonia, which is used in the production of fertilizers, and blue hydrogen, which could play an important role in providing low-carbon energy in the future.

Accelerating the pace of increasing production

The company has increased daily gas production and processing capacity over the past few years.

Moreover, the company plans to expand the scope of its gas business, including accelerating the development of unconventional gas resources in the Kingdom to help meet the large and growing domestic demand for low-cost, low-emission energy.

The company’s strategy includes increasing its gas production by more than half, compared to 2021 levels, which amounted to about 10.1 billion standard cubic feet per day, by 2030.

This is reinforced by continued investment in the company’s gas processing capabilities, which witnessed an increase in daily processing capacity from two billion standard cubic feet in 2000, to about 19 billion standard cubic feet at the end of 2023.

Unconventional resource facilities

Starting in 2024, the company’s gas processing facilities include: Berri, Al-Fadhili, Haradh, Al-Hawiyah, Al-Khursaniyah, Madin, Shedqum, Al-Shaybah, Al-Uthmaniyah, and Wasit, in addition to unconventional resource facilities in the north of the Kingdom and southern Ghawar.

The company uses drones and robotic solutions to increase safety and efficiency.
The use of these technologies at the Uthmaniyah Gas Plant reduced inspection time by 90% and increased response speed to safety and emergency situations by 5%.
The Osmaniye gas plant is the first of the company’s facilities to be recognized by the World Economic Forum (WEF), due to its advanced use of Fourth Industrial Revolution technologies.

Meet the growing local demand

Aramco explores and manages pilot projects, and creates the necessary infrastructure to access new unconventional reserves, such as in the northern Kingdom, southern Ghawar, and Jafurah fields.

Aramco is working to develop unconventional gas fields to contribute to meeting the growing local demand for this type of low-carbon energy.

Enhance technical knowledge

Aramco’s exploration efforts never stop, reinforced by the technical know-how of its experts, in addition to its technical innovations, and it seeks to discover more hidden unconventional resources in the Kingdom.

The latest unconventional discoveries include two unconventional oil fields: Al-Ladham and Al-Farouq, the first two oil fields discovered by Aramco in the Eastern Province, and this was announced by the Ministry of Energy of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in July 2024.

In June 2024, during the signing ceremony of contracts for the second phase of the Jafoura gas field project, and the third phase of the expansion project of the main gas network of Saudi Aramco in the Dhahran region, His Royal Highness Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman bin Abdulaziz, Minister of Energy, stated that the Kingdom’s gas production will increase by 63% by 2030, and the Kingdom’s production will rise from 13.5 billion cubic feet per day to about 21.3 billion cubic feet by 2030.

Al-Jafoura field numbers

The Jafurah field is an essential part of Saudi Arabia’s strategy to diversify its energy exports away from oil, and the quantities of resources in the field are estimated at about 229 trillion standard cubic feet of gas, and 75 billion barrels of condensate.
Production is expected to begin in 2025, and sales of Jafura gas are targeted to reach two billion standard cubic feet per day by 2030.

During the third quarter of 2024, crude oil and natural gas activities recorded the highest contribution to the GDP, amounting to 22.8%, of the GDP, which amounted to 1.007 trillion riyals.