Saudi Arabia is making progress in boosting natural gas (NG) capacity, top officials said recently, initiating major new projects meant to reduce the country’s reliance on crude oil for producing electricity.
Saudi Arabian Oil Co. (Saudi Aramco), the state-owned energy firm, said it had signed contracts to carry out a $13.33 billion gas project announced last year. When completed in 2019, the Fadhili project, in an isolated stretch of desert in the Eastern Province, will be the country’s first to treat gas from both onshore and offshore fields, said Amin Nasser, Chief Executive of Saudi Aramco.
The start of the Fadhili project comes after a gas development called Wasit started production in March. It is expected to add 20 percent to Saudi Arabia’s natural-gas production when it reaches full capacity in the next few weeks.