Saudi Aramco started producing gas last week from Karan, its first non-associated gas field, two industry sources have told the Reuters news agency.
Gas began to flow from the field on schedule last week, an unnamed source told Reuters. The field will now gradually increase production over the coming weeks.
Reuters’s sources did not say when Karan – which is a core component of the Kingdom’s strategy of freeing up more oil for export by increasing gas production for electricity generation – would reach its summer 2011 target production of 400-450 million cubic feet per day (cfd) of gas.
Aramco said in its 2010 annual review that Karan should reach a full production capacity of 1.8 billion cfd in April 2013, in time for peak summer power demand.
Hyundai Engineering & Construction and Britain’s Petrofac are working on onshore parts of the project, while U.S.-based McDermott International is building offshore platforms and a subsea pipeline to carry sour gas from Karan for processing at the Khursaniyah plant onshore.
Saudi Arabia is focusing on tapping new sources of gas that are not tied to oil production to help meet seasonal demand for electricity and rising petrochemical feedstock needs. In its widening search for fuel Aramco plans to probe as yet unexploited areas such as the Red Sea for more oil and gas.
Aramco is now building two major gas projects, Wasit and Shaybah natural gas liquids, which should both be completed in 2014, and is looking at new offshore prospects including deep-water fields.
