President and CEO of Saudi Aramco, Abdullah Jumah said last month that the company is poised to step-up production significantly by the end of next year, and that output capacity would swell to 12 million bpd.
OPEC’s leading producer is currently pumping around 9.4 million bpd, although output may drop following October’s emergency meeting session.
“In light of growing global demand for petroleum, and the Kingdom’s own economic expansion, Saudi Aramco continues to expand our already massive scope of operations. In fact, we are currently engaged in a series of massive mega projects which will not only increase our oil and gas production capabilities, but also extend our business portfolio into new areas,” said Jumah.
The CEO added that projects already in execution would include 1.5 to 2 2 million bpd of spare production capacity. “This spare capacity is not cheap to develop or to maintain, but it has repeatedly proven its worth when events have disrupted supplies from other producers, and is integral to the responsible role that Saudi Arabia plays on the global stage.”
Some of the projects aluded to by Jumah are unprecedented in their size and scope. For example, the Khurais project, which comes onstream next year, will have 1.2 million bpd of crude oil production capacity, and alone will be equal to Algeria’s total current production, and in the neighborhood of half of what Venezuela, Iraq or Kuwait produces.
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“Our Manifa program, which is slated for completion in 2011, includes 900 000 bpd of capacity, more than Qatar’s total daily production.
“At the same time, we are working on two 400 000 bpd export refineries, on the Arabian Gulf coast at Jubail with Total and in Yanbu on the Red Sea with ConocoPhillips, investments which together total more than $25 billion.”
“These projects are at the very epicenter of today’s energy world, and offer plentiful openings for world-class firms looking for promising long-term opportunities.”
Jumah concluded his address by taking the opportunity to spell out the special nature of Aramco’s task.
“While every company is special in some way, we’re not quite like any other company on Earth, given the unique mission which results from the sheer volume of the petroleum reserves entrusted to us, the criticality of those resources to the global economy, and the responsibilities we bear.”
