Saudi Aramco’s Unconventional Gas Program

Since signalling a long-term commitment to unconventional resources a few years ago, Aramco’s unconventional gas program has shown the potential to complement future in-Kingdom gas supply. This is significant as unconventional gas is key to meeting the Kingdom’s growing energy needs with cleaner burning natural gas for domestic power generation.

Saudi Aramco’s unconventional resources program is a part of the Kingdom’s efforts to diversify local energy resources, and developing these resources will fuel growing demand and enrich the larger energy industry landscape. Unconventional fields or “plays” are considered to be a potentially significant future source of long-term hydrocarbon production. However, developing unconventional resources requires logistics that differ from those of standard conventional gas, and a unique strategy to ensure efficiency and economic viability is needed.

Unconventional plays in the Kingdom are being developed using the latest technologies in hydraulic fracturing and multistage hydraulic fracturing techniques. Coupling new fracturing techniques with learned experience is the approach taken by Saudi Aramco’s unconventional team to overcome various challenges associated with the operation and engineering of newly explored unconventional plays.

The regional focus areas for the unconventional program are North and South Arabia, Jafurah, and the Rub’ al-Khali (Empty Quarter). The primary objective of the unconventional resources strategy is to prove, produce, and deliver significant volumes of hydrocarbon liquids and/or gas from mud rocks and tight gas reservoirs.

Plans are underway to deliver economic gas by 2020. To achieve this Saudi Aramco is evolving its organization model to continue to grow and adjust to unconventional challenges, utilising R&D resources and collaborating with other organisations to develop new technologies, which will meet these growing demands.