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Saudi Arabia Forges Ahead with Jafurah Shale Gas Field Development  

A view of the Jafurah Shale Gas Field. (Saudi Aramco)
A view of the Jafurah Shale Gas Field. (Saudi Aramco)
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Saudi Arabia Forges Ahead with Jafurah Shale Gas Field Development  

A view of the Jafurah Shale Gas Field. (Saudi Aramco)
A view of the Jafurah Shale Gas Field. (Saudi Aramco)

Saudi Aramco is pressing ahead with one of its most ambitious energy initiatives to date: the development of the Jafurah unconventional gas field, the largest of its kind in the Middle East, as part of a broader strategy to diversify the Kingdom’s energy mix and boost domestic gas output.

Located in the Eastern Province’s Jafurah Basin, which spans around 17,000 square kilometers, the project is seen as a cornerstone of Aramco’s transformation. The first phase is scheduled for completion in 2025, with plans to ramp up production to a sustained 2 billion standard cubic feet per day (scfd) of gas by 2030, alongside large volumes of ethane, natural gas liquids (NGLs), and condensates.

Speaking during the company’s second-quarter earnings announcement on Monday, Aramco CEO Amin Nasser confirmed that development at the Jafurah Gas Plant remains on track. The company posted net profits of $24.5 billion for the quarter, down from $29.07 billion a year earlier.

Jafurah holds an estimated 200 trillion standard cubic feet of natural gas, making it the richest shale gas play in the region. Aramco plans to invest more than $100 billion over the next 15 years to fully develop the field.

At the Al-Ahsa Investment Forum 2025, Nasser said the project is expected to contribute approximately $23 billion annually to Saudi Arabia’s GDP. It also aligns with Aramco’s goal to increase gas production capacity by over 60% by the end of the decade.

Global partnerships

According to former Saudi oil ministry adviser Dr. Mohammed Al-Sabban, the Jafurah field contains significant unconventional gas reserves, specifically shale gas, and may open the door to further technological partnerships.

“Given the complexity of the geology, Aramco could seek international partners with advanced expertise in shale gas extraction,” Al-Sabban told Asharq Al-Awsat.

He added that Saudi Arabia’s simultaneous expansion in oil, gas, and renewable energy investments positions the Kingdom as a comprehensive energy provider, rather than merely an oil exporter.

Decarbonization and industrial integration

The Jafurah project is also central to Aramco’s decarbonization drive, supporting the company's net-zero emissions target by 2050. It will provide high-value feedstock for the refining, processing, and petrochemicals sectors, including ethane, NGLs, and condensates.

Due to the low permeability and porosity of the basin’s shale formations, the project depends on advanced horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing techniques to extract gas from the sedimentary rocks of the Tuwaiq Mountain.

These technical demands classify Jafurah as an unconventional field, requiring specialized equipment and risk management protocols.

Aramco began by drilling both horizontal and vertical wells after confirming vast hydrocarbon deposits, alongside developing talent and creating detailed geologic maps to guide a three-year appraisal phase.

Billion-dollar contracts

On the ground, Aramco has introduced a suite of innovations to boost efficiency and safety. It has deployed mobile drilling rigs that can be relocated in one piece, and implemented advanced fracking practices that allowed the company to drill and complete wells more than five times faster, without traditional rigs, cutting costs and accelerating production timelines.

More than $10 billion in contracts have been awarded for the project’s initial phase, covering the construction of a fully integrated gas supply system. This includes a gas processing facility, an NGL fractionation plant, a gas compression network, and about 1,500 kilometers of pipelines for transportation and distribution, as well as a central power station and electrical infrastructure.

Turning point

Jafurah is not only a gas development megaproject; it is poised to reshape Saudi Arabia’s energy security. Once fully operational, it is expected to offset the equivalent of 500,000 barrels per day of crude oil used for domestic power generation, freeing up those volumes for value-added sectors such as refining and petrochemicals.

By 2030, the field is projected to produce more than 420 million scfd of ethane and up to 630,000 barrels per day of NGLs and condensates, helping to meet surging feedstock demand in the petrochemical industry.

The project is also expected to complement Aramco’s broader plans to scale up production of low-carbon hydrogen and blue ammonia.

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Business

Leading Harvard Trade Economist Says Saudi Arabia Holds Key to Success in Fragmented Global Economy

Professor Pol Antràs speaks during a panel discussion at the AlUla Conference for Emerging Market Economies (Asharq Al-Awsat).
Professor Pol Antràs speaks during a panel discussion at the AlUla Conference for Emerging Market Economies (Asharq Al-Awsat).
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Leading Harvard Trade Economist Says Saudi Arabia Holds Key to Success in Fragmented Global Economy

Professor Pol Antràs speaks during a panel discussion at the AlUla Conference for Emerging Market Economies (Asharq Al-Awsat).
Professor Pol Antràs speaks during a panel discussion at the AlUla Conference for Emerging Market Economies (Asharq Al-Awsat).

Harvard University economics professor Pol Antràs said Saudi Arabia represents an exceptional model in the shifting global trade landscape, differing fundamentally from traditional emerging-market frameworks. He also stressed that globalization has not ended but has instead re-formed into what he describes as fragmented integration.

Speaking to Asharq Al-Awsat on the sidelines of the AlUla Conference for Emerging Market Economies, Antràs said Saudi Arabia’s Vision-driven structural reforms position the Kingdom to benefit from the ongoing phase of fragmented integration, adding that the country’s strategic focus on logistics transformation and artificial intelligence constitutes a key engine for sustainable growth that extends beyond the volatility of global crises.

Antràs, the Robert G. Ory Professor of Economics at Harvard University, is one of the leading contemporary theorists of international trade. His research, which reshaped understanding of global value chains, focuses on how firms organize cross-border production and how regulation and technological change influence global trade flows and corporate decision-making.

He said conventional classifications of economies often obscure important structural differences, noting that the term emerging markets groups together countries with widely divergent industrial bases. Economies that depend heavily on manufacturing exports rely critically on market access and trade integration and therefore face stronger competitive pressures from Chinese exports that are increasingly shifting toward alternative markets.

Saudi Arabia, by contrast, exports extensively while facing limited direct competition from China in its primary export commodity, a situation that creates a strategic opportunity. The current environment allows the Kingdom to obtain imports from China at lower cost and access a broader range of goods that previously flowed largely toward the United States market.

Addressing how emerging economies should respond to dumping pressures and rising competition, Antràs said countries should minimize protectionist tendencies and instead position themselves as committed participants in the multilateral trading system, allowing foreign producers to access domestic markets while encouraging domestic firms to expand internationally.

He noted that although Chinese dumping presents concerns for countries with manufacturing sectors that compete directly with Chinese production, the risk is lower for Saudi Arabia because it does not maintain a large manufacturing base that overlaps directly with Chinese exports. Lower-cost imports could benefit Saudi consumers, while targeted policy tools such as credit programs, subsidies, and support for firms seeking to redesign and upgrade business models represent more effective responses than broad protectionist measures.

Globalization has not ended

Antràs said globalization continues but through more complex structures, with trade agreements increasingly negotiated through diverse arrangements rather than relying primarily on multilateral negotiations. Trade deals will continue to be concluded, but they are likely to become more complex, with uncertainty remaining a defining feature of the global trading environment.

Interest rates and artificial intelligence

According to Antràs, high global interest rates, combined with the additional risk premiums faced by emerging markets, are constraining investment, particularly in sectors that require export financing, capital expenditure, and continuous quality upgrading.

However, he noted that elevated interest rates partly reflect expectations of stronger long-term growth driven by artificial intelligence and broader technological transformation.

He also said if those growth expectations materialize, productivity gains could enable small and medium-sized enterprises to forecast demand more accurately and identify previously untapped markets, partially offsetting the negative effects of higher borrowing costs.

Employment concerns and the role of government

The Harvard professor warned that labor markets face a dual challenge stemming from intensified Chinese export competition and accelerating job automation driven by artificial intelligence, developments that could lead to significant disruptions, particularly among younger workers. He said governments must adopt proactive strategies requiring substantial fiscal resources to mitigate near-term labor-market shocks.

According to Antràs, productivity growth remains the central condition for success: if new technologies deliver the anticipated productivity gains, governments will gain the fiscal space needed to compensate affected groups and retrain the workforce, achieving a balance between addressing short-term disruptions and investing in long-term strategic gains.

Business

Aljadaan: Emerging Markets Account for 70% of Global Growth

Al-Jadaan speaking to the attendees at the "AlUla Conference for Emerging Market Economies" (Asharq Al-Awsat
Al-Jadaan speaking to the attendees at the "AlUla Conference for Emerging Market Economies" (Asharq Al-Awsat
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Aljadaan: Emerging Markets Account for 70% of Global Growth

Al-Jadaan speaking to the attendees at the "AlUla Conference for Emerging Market Economies" (Asharq Al-Awsat
Al-Jadaan speaking to the attendees at the "AlUla Conference for Emerging Market Economies" (Asharq Al-Awsat

Saudi Minister of Finance Mohammed Aljadaan stressed Sunday that the world economy is going through a “profound transition,” saying emerging markets and developing economies now account for nearly 60 percent of the global Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in purchasing power terms and over 70 percent of global growth.

In his opening remarks at the AlUla Conference for Emerging Market Economies, organized by the Saudi Ministry of Finance and the IMF in AlUla, the minister said these economies have become an increasingly important driver of global growth with their share of global economy more than doubling since 2010.

“Today, the 10 emerging economies in the G20 alone account for more than half of the world growth. Yet, they face a more complex and fragmented environment, elevated debt levels, slower trade growth and increasing exposure to geopolitical shocks.”

“Unfortunately, more than half of low income countries are either in or at the risk of debt distress. At the same time global trade growth has slowed at around half of what it was pre the pandemic,” Aljadaan added.

The Finance Minister stressed that the Saudi experience over the past decade has reinforced three lessons that may be relevant to the discussions at the two-day conference, which brings together a select group of ministers and central bank governors, leaders of international organizations, leading investors and academics.

“First, macroeconomic stability is not the enemy of growth. It is actually the foundation,” he said.

“Structural reforms deliver results only when institutions deliver. So there is no point of reforming ... if the institutions are unable to deliver,” he stated.

Finally, he said that “international cooperation matters more, not less, in a fragmented world.”

Business

Georgieva from AlUla: Growth Still Lacks Pre-pandemic Levels

Kristalina Georgieva speaking to attendees at the second edition of the AlUla Conference for Emerging Market Economies (Asharq Al-Awsat)
Kristalina Georgieva speaking to attendees at the second edition of the AlUla Conference for Emerging Market Economies (Asharq Al-Awsat)
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Georgieva from AlUla: Growth Still Lacks Pre-pandemic Levels

Kristalina Georgieva speaking to attendees at the second edition of the AlUla Conference for Emerging Market Economies (Asharq Al-Awsat)
Kristalina Georgieva speaking to attendees at the second edition of the AlUla Conference for Emerging Market Economies (Asharq Al-Awsat)

International Monetary Fund (IMF) Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said Sunday that world growth still lacks pre-pandemic levels, expressing concern as she expected more shocks amid high spending and rising debt levels in many countries.

Georgieva spoke at the AlUla Conference for Emerging Market Economies, organized by the Saudi Ministry of Finance and the IMF in AlUla.

The two-day conference brings together a select group of ministers and central bank governors, leaders of international organizations, leading investors and academics to deliberate on policies to global stability, prosperity, and multilateral collaboration.

Georgieva said that the conference was launched last year in recognition of the growing role of emerging market economies in a world of sweeping transformations.

“I came out of this gathering .... With a sense of hope for the pragmatic attitude and determination to pursue good policies and build strong institutions,” she said.

Georgieva stressed that “good policies pay off,” and said that growth rates across emerging economies reached four percent this year, exceeding by a large margin those of advanced economies that are around 1.5 percent.