Saudi Aramco Preparing to Tap Shale Deposit That Could Rival Texas' Eagle Ford

Saudi Aramco, the world's largest oil exporter, is set to join the shale revolution with plans to start producing unconventional natural gas this month and exploit a deposit that could rival the Eagle Ford formation in Texas.Saudi Arabia's gas resources from shale and other alternative supplies are "huge," Khalid Al Abdulqader, general manager of unconventional resources at Aramco, said Wednesday in Manama, Bahrain. Production at the kingdom's North Arabia basin will start by the end of March and reach its target by the end of this year, he said, without giving details.Aramco is also drilling for unconventional gas in the South Ghawar and Jafurah basins, he said. Jafurah in eastern Saudi Arabia is similar in size to Eagle Ford, the second-biggest U.S. shale play for gas, Al Abdulqader said, without giving an estimate of the gas contained at Jafurah."It's completely believable," Robin Mills, chief executive officer of Dubai-based consultant Qamar Energy, said of the comparison. "Can they make a commercial proposition of it? That's the question."  Continue reading...

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