Saudi company looks to NGL for next phase of expansion
Saudi Aramco will be looking at producing natural gas liquids (NGLs) from associated gas at Shaybah when it starts work on the second phase of its expansion project at the giant oilfield.
"We will be evaluating the Shaybah gas cap along with the second 250,000 barrels per day incremental increase," an Aramco source told Upstream.
The oilfield is now going through a 250,000 bpd expansion to 750,000 bpd, with the second incremental increase taking output to 1 million bpd.
The gas plan, which would be based on stripping the associated gas for NGLs, is already under study, he said.
It is unclear when Aramco will launch the scheme to exploit Shaybah's gas reserves, but Shaybah Production Department Manager Ali S Al-Ajmi last week told visiting journalists that a "capital investment decision" would hopefully be made soon, "in a few years". He did not provide details.
However, the Aramco source said the scheme would be based on producing NGLs, with the gas being re-injected into the reservoir.
At the moment, 95% of the 700 million cubic feet per day of associated gas being produced along with the 500,000 bpd of Arab extra light crude is re-injected.
The gas dome, which accounts for one-half of the 400-ft thickness of the Shaybah reservoir, contains an estimated 31 trillion cubic feet of wet gas at a depth of about 5000 feet.
Shaybah, which has proven crude reserves of 19 billion barrels, is in the middle of the Rub al-Khala (Empty Quarter) desert, about 800 kilometres south-east of Dhahran. The extra light crude is shipped to Alqaiq via a 46-inch 630 kilometre pipeline.
The field was found in 1968 but its crude could not be exploited until horizontal drilling and other new technologies made it possible to do so in the late 1990s. About three-quarters of the wells drilled at the field are horizontal.
Shaybah is now going through an expansion scheme to raise output to 750,000 bpd by the end of next year. Al-Ajmi said: "It's now 30% ready."
A source said the end of 2008 would see early output, with the target level being reached in 2009.
Three rigs are on site at the expansion project, with another rig being used for maintenance. About 34 wells have so far been drilled.
The planned second incremental increase of 250,000 bpd, raising production to 1 million bpd, will require a fourth gas oil separation plant at the production site in a project area covering about 800 square kilometres of sand dunes, some of which rise to nearly 700 feet.
VAHE PETROSSIAN
© Upstream 2007
