Saudi Aramco to go ahead with projects despite oil slump: CEO

Saudi Arabian Oil Company (Saudi Aramco) will go ahead with its expansion plans for the Khurais oil field as the oil giant looks to double its production of natural gas over the next 10 years, news agencies quoted the company’s chief executive officer as saying.

The Khurais project is expected to come online by 2018, and there has been no break in exploration activities, Amin Nasser told reporters during a conference in Al-Ahsa on Wednesday.

“Until now all of our downstream and upstream projects are continuous,” he said. “No project in our programs got canceled.”

 “Exploration activities are continuing. We have one rig in the Red Sea in the shallow water.”

Aramco is also studying a possible expansion of Saudi Arabia’s largest oil refinery, Ras Tanura, which has a capacity of 550,000 barrels a day, he added.

Ghawar oil field, the world’s biggest, has been producing for 70 years and will continue for “many years to come,” Nasser said at the conference.

The oil field yields 60 percent of Saudi Arabia’s crude oil, Abdul Latif Al-Othman, governor of the Saudi Arabian General Investment Authority, said at the same event.

Nasser added that the oil company has made a “promising” shale gas discovery at the Jafurah field in the Al-Ahsa region and is assessing and appraising the area for future production.