While Saudis have signed LNG deals with Texas they have again proved they have much more oil and gas
Saudi Arabia, the latest entrant into the LNG market with two supply contracts signed in Texas, has discovered seven more oil and gas fields in the Kingdom’s Eastern Province and in the Empty Quarter.
Saudi Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman said Saudi Arabian Oil Company (Aramco) had just discovered “two unconventional oil fields, a reservoir of light Arabian oil, two natural gas fields, and two natural gas reservoirs” in recent weeks.
Two unconventional oil fields and one reservoir were discovered in the Saudi Eastern Province while the two natural gas fields and two gas reservoirs are in the Empty Quarter.
The “Ladam” unconventional oil field was discovered in the Eastern Province after the flow of very light Arabian oil in the Ladam-2 well at a rate of 5,100 barrels per day, accompanied by about 4.9 million standard cubic feet of gas per day.
In addition to having much more oil and gas than Texas, Aramco was still happy to sign to supply agreements with the Port Arthur LNG project and the Rio Grande LNG joint venture.
Discoveries list
Outlining its own recent discoveries, Aramco added that the “Al-Farouk” unconventional oil field was discovered in the Eastern Province after Arab ultra-light oil flowed from the Al-Farouk-4 well at a rate of 4,557 barrels per day, accompanied by about 3.79 million standard cubic feet of gas per day.
The “Unayzah” reservoir was discovered in the “Mazalij” field in the Eastern Province, after Arab Light oil flowed from the Mazalij-62 well at a rate of 1,780 barrels per day, accompanied by about 0.7 million standard cubic feet of gas per day.
The “Al-Jahaq” resources were found in the Empty Quarter after natural gas flowed from the “Al-Arab-C” reservoir in Al-Jahaq-1 well at a rate of 5.3 million standard cubic feet per day, and from the “Al-Arab-D” reservoir in the same well at a rate of 1.1 million standard cubic feet per day.
The Empty Quarter is the largest continuous sand desert in the world and is almost the size of France, covering about 650,000 square kilometres of arid and inhospitable terrain - containing nothing but oil and gas.
The “Al-Katuf” field was discovered in the Empty Quarter after natural gas flowed into Al-Katuf-1 well at a rate of 7.6 million standard cubic feet per day, accompanied by about 40 barrels per day of condensate.
The “Hanifa” reservoir was found in the “Asikra” field in the Empty Quarter after natural gas flowed in the Asikra-6 well at a rate of 4.9 million standard cubic feet per day.
LNG deals
Aramco has signed a second US LNG accord to receive volumes from another Texas export, the Port Arthur liquefaction joint venture in Texas being developed by Sempra Infrastucture, and has followed up on a deal signed earlier in June with the Rio Grande export project in the Port of Brownsville.
Sempra has signed a non-binding Heads of Agreement as part of a 20-year deal for Aramco to offtake 5 million tonnes per annum from the Port Arthur LNG Phase Two expansion.
The accord also contemplates Aramco taking a 25 percent participation in the project-level equity of Phase Two.
The Aramco deal with the Port Arthur project follows an earlier accord signed by the Saudis in mid-June 2024 with NextDecade Corp., the developer of the Rio Grande LNG export plant in Texas.
Aramco and NextDecade confirmed a non-binding accord for the supply of cargoes from the future Train 4 of the Rio Grande plant being constructed at the Port of Brownsville.
That Heads of Agreement was for 20 years and was also with the upstream division of Aramco.
The Rio Grande project is located on 984 acres of land which has been leased long term and includes 15,000 feet of frontage on the Brownsville Ship Channel.
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