Does anyone know what kind of progess has been made on the Dammam project in the last two years?
Seems like we used to get good details about world and KSA projects a few years ago but all we get these days is endless hype about Texas and North Dakota fixing everything.
the work conducted by the Saudis previously was the megaprojects which entailed a number of projects including MRC wells, SMART completions, installation of greater water handling capacity etc. These projects were spoken of often by Aramco given that they had just been caught with their pants down...virtually no spare capacity that could be immediately accessed coupled with a sudden increase in global demand for oil. It was their way of saying...."hey sorry about that we are fixing it". The Saudis are always pretty tight lipped about what they do. It wasn't until years after it was in use that anyone knew about Aramcos intensive full field simulations using a super computer likely more capable than anything used by the US gov't.
At this point in time I suspect they see no need to tell the world what they are doing. My guess is rather than being completely desperate they are conducting business like any other prudent operator would do. Although when they shut the field in originally it was just "a bridge too far" given technology of the day right now whatever they have to do to make a profit from it is probably easier than the continued work they are involved in with Manifa and some of the other fields, no doubt cheaper as well. Also there may have been a small increase in demand for this type of oil that we are unaware of. Aramco's speed of development of their heavy oil resources has been driven to some extent by demand (not every refinery can deal with the heavier oil and the end users are somewhat specific).
As I have said numerous times in the past the only clear signal that SA is in extreme trouble is when they are asked to deliver oil when no one else can and they are unable to do so. That hasn't been the case yet. Doesn't mean they aren't having problems internally though that deal more with balancing a budget that is heavily skewed to public works and subsidies.