Aramco’s Khursaniyah project on track

Saudi Aramco, the world’s top oil exporter, said on Monday its Khursaniyah project was on track to start production in December.

The Khursaniyah project will pump 500,000 barrels per day of light crude which is more than double the next largest Opec capacity boost due in 2007.

‘The start of the project for the production of new crude oil in Khursaniyah is expected in December 2007,’ Aramco said in a statement.
In addition to the Arabian Light crude, the development is designed to have production and processing capacity of 300 million standard cubic feet per day of associated gas online in December, a company spokesman said earlier this month.

Saudi Arabia accelerated its oilfield expansion plans to maintain spare capacity of between 1.5 million to two million bpd to meet growing demand or cover unexpected shortfalls in global supply. It cut preliminary work at Khursaniyah to eight months from 20 months as part of that plan.

Additional increments are scheduled to take the Opec producer’s output capacity to 12.5 million bpd by 2009.

Trade Arabia