Saudi Arabia has confirmed that a significant amount of additional gas reserves at state oil company Aramco's giant Jafurah field has been proven, boosting the kingdom's energy sector.
The additional reserves amount to 15 trillion standard cubic feet of gas and two billion barrels of condensate, the Ministry of Energy said on Sunday.
Resources in the Jafurah field are now estimated at around 229 trillion cf of gas and 75 billion barrels of condensate, which were confirmed by a "major independent consulting company specialised in the field of resource approval and proven reserves", the ministry said.
"This achievement was achieved as a result of applying the highest international standards in estimating and developing hydrocarbon resources."
The Jafurah unconventional gasfield lies south-east of the Ghawar oilfield in the kingdom's Eastern Province. Unconventional resources refer to those that require advanced extraction methods.
Riyadh has committed to developing the field, with Saudi Aramco in 2021 awarding contracts worth $10 billion for the endeavour. At the time, the capital expenditure at Jafurah – the largest non-associated gasfield in the kingdom – was expected to reach $68 billion over the first 10 years of development.
With an estimated 200 trillion cf of gas in place, the Jafurah basin hosts the largest liquid-rich shale gas play in the Middle East.
This covers an area of 17,000 square kilometres. The production of natural gas at Jafurah is expected to increase to 2 billion standard cubic feet per day (scfd) of shale gas by 2030, from 200 million scfd in 2025, with 418 million scfd of ethane and around 630,000 barrels per day of gas liquids and condensates, which are feedstock for the petrochemical industry.
It will make Saudi Arabia, the Arab world’s largest economy, one of the world’s largest natural gas producers.
The project is a key component of Aramco’s long-term strategy and the company expects total overall life cycle investment at Jafurah to exceed $100 billion.
Aramco, the world's biggest oil-exporting company, expects to create more than 200,000 direct and indirect jobs through its unconventional gas programme at the Jafurah, North Arabia and South Ghawar fields.
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From: Dara
To: Team@
Date: March 25, 2019 at 11:45pm PT
Subj: Accelerating in the Middle East
Five years ago, Uber launched in the Middle East. It was the start of an incredible journey, with millions of riders and drivers finding new ways to move and work in a dynamic region that’s become so important to Uber. Now Pakistan is one of our fastest-growing markets in the world, women are driving with Uber across Saudi Arabia, and we chose Cairo to launch our first Uber Bus product late last year.
Today we are taking the next step in this journey—well, it’s more like a leap, and a big one: in a few minutes, we’ll announce that we’ve agreed to acquire Careem. Importantly, we intend to operate Careem independently, under the leadership of co-founder and current CEO Mudassir Sheikha. I’ve gotten to know both co-founders, Mudassir and Magnus Olsson, and what they have built is truly extraordinary. They are first-class entrepreneurs who share our platform vision and, like us, have launched a wide range of products—from digital payments to food delivery—to serve consumers.
I expect many of you will ask how we arrived at this structure, meaning allowing Careem to maintain an independent brand and operate separately. After careful consideration, we decided that this framework has the advantage of letting us build new products and try new ideas across not one, but two, strong brands, with strong operators within each. Over time, by integrating parts of our networks, we can operate more efficiently, achieve even lower wait times, expand new products like high-capacity vehicles and payments, and quicken the already remarkable pace of innovation in the region.
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It’s a great day for the Middle East, for the region’s thriving tech sector, for Careem, and for Uber.
Uber on,
Dara
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