Saudi Arabia has started production at the Khursaniyah field that will eventually pump 500,000 barrels a day, Saudi Aramco's Chief Executive Officer Abdullah Jum'ah said here on Monday, where he is attending the International Energy Forum. The new field on the east coast “has already started,” he said. Saudi Arabia is funneling about $90 billion of its oil wealth back into oil production and refining activities in the next five years in an effort to retain its status as the world's largest oil exporter. Abdulaziz al-Judaimi, Saudi Aramco's vice president of new business development, said in London on April 9 that Khursaniyah would start this month and would be producing 300,000 barrels a day within a month. Aramco is also working to add production capacity at its Shaybah, Manifa and Khurais oil fields, and by 2009 aims to have boosted its production capacity to 12.5 million barrels a day. In Houston, meanwhile, Halliburton has been selected to provide a variety of oil field services in support of the offshore portion of Saudi Aramco's Manifa mega-project. The Manifa project has a production target of 900 MBCD (thousand barrels of oil per calendar day), making it Saudi Aramco's second largest incremental oil production project. The three-year contract calls for the provision of directional drilling, logging-while-drilling, cementing, logging and perforating, coiled tubing and stimulation services for 93 wells offshore northeast Saudi Arabia. The offshore component of this project will utilize 10 jack-up rigs. The Manifa project is a key part of Saudi Aramco's plan to increase its overall production capacity. Ahmed Lotfy, Halliburton's Eastern Hemisphere president, said: “To be selected by Saudi Aramco for yet another project of this magnitude demonstrates our client's continued confidence in our ability to successfully execute such complex and challenging operations. This contract award validates our commitment to expand customer relations with national oil companies and grow Halliburton's international business.” “Halliburton has worked with Saudi Aramco for nearly 70 years and has maintained an impressive track record of safely and successfully delivering mega-projects,” added Gasser Badrashini, vice president of Halliburton's Saudi Arabia and Bahrain operations. “Following on from the success of our work on the Khurais mega-project, which is currently ahead of schedule, the award of the Manifa project reflects our solid performance and leading technologies.” Halliburton has performed thousands of service operations for Saudi Aramco. From well construction to fluid systems and from drilling and formation evaluation to production optimization, Halliburton has worked in a multitude of different reservoirs and wells, ranging from basic to complex, with customized solutions for Saudi Aramco's drilling and workover and other exploration and production departments. Founded in 1919, Halliburton is one of the world's largest providers of products and services to the energy industry. Halliburton announced on Monday that net income for the first quarter of 2008 was $584 million, or $0.64 per diluted share. This compares to net income of $552 million, or $0.54 per diluted share, in the first quarter of 2007. The first quarter of 2008 results were unfavorably impacted by a $14 million, or $0.02 per diluted share, after-tax charge related to the impairment of an oil and gas property in Bangladesh, where the company has had an interest in a producing property since 1996. The first quarter of 2008 results were favorably impacted by a $22 million, or $0.02 per diluted share, after-tax gain related to the sale of a joint venture interest in the United States. Halliburton's consolidated revenue in the first quarter of 2008 was $4.0 billion, up 18 percent from the first quarter of 2007. All product service lines contributed to this increase, primarily due to increased international activity. Operating income was $847 million in the first quarter of 2008 compared to $788 million in the first quarter of 2007. With the exception of the production enhancement product service line, which experienced the expected pricing declines and cost increases in its United States operations, and Landmark, which incurred the impairment noted above, all product service lines contributed to the increase. “Our first quarter results were consistent with our previously announced expectations,” said Dave Lesar, chairman, president, and chief executive officer. “Our international revenue growth helped offset the production enhancement pricing pressures we knew were coming in the US market. __
