Saudi Aramco is intending to fund the development of the Jafurah gas field, one of the largest in the world, at a cost of $110 billion.
Planned to start production in 2025, the field is expected to have approximately two billion standard cubic feet per day of sales by 2030, which will make the Kingdom the world’s third largest producer of natural gas by the end of this decade.
Aramco has contacted private equity firms and other large funds as part of its plans, which would involve the sale of stakes in assets such as carbon capture and storage projects, hydrogen plants, and pipelines, Bloomberg reported.
Bloomberg sources said that US investment banking company Evercore was serving as the adviser to Aramco for the proposed plans.
In 2020, the Saudi giant announced that it secured regulatory approval for the development of the Jafurah unconventional gas field.
Yasir Al-Rumayyan, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Aramco, said that the development of the Jafurah field was expected to support the Kingdom’s leading position in the global energy sector and enhance the Company’s position in the global energy sector, as well as help achieve its goal of being the world’s pre-eminent integrated energy and chemicals company.
For his part, Eng. Amin Al-Nasser, President and Chief Executive Officer of Saudi Aramco, noted that the development of the Jafurah field would expand the company’s resources and support the country’s economic diversification.
In a statement, Aramco said that Jafurah was the largest unconventional non-associated gas field in the Kingdom, with a length of 170 km and a width of 100 km.
It added that the volume of gas resources in the field was estimated at 200 trillion cubic feet of rich raw gas, which would provide a valuable feedstock for the petrochemical industries.
“The Company expects the field’s production, to commence early 2024, to reach approximately 2.2 billion standard cubic feet per day of sales gas by 2036, with an associated approximately 425 million standard cubic feet per day of ethane, representing about 40 percent of current production. The Company also expects the field to produce approximately 550 thousand barrels per day of gas liquids and condensates,” the statement underlined.
It continued: “Saudi Aramco plans to develop Jafurah in accordance with the highest environmental standards. The Company expects that the development of Jafurah would have a positive financial impact in the long term, which will start to show on the Company’s financial results in phases concurrent to the field’s development.”
