The South Rub Al-Khali consortium (SRAK), a 50/50 joint venture between Shell and Saudi Aramco, said gas was flowing at a combined rate of 90 million cubic feet per day (MMcfd) from two zones encountered in its Kidan-6 exploration well drilled in the Empty Quarter. “One zone was flowed at a rate of 50 MMcfd of gas while the other zone was flowed at 40 MMcfd,” SRAK said in an emailed statement to Reuters. The gas tested “is sour ... (with) 10-25 barrels of condensate liquids (per one million cubic feet of gas)”. The same well showed that another area, called Khuff reservoirs “was not hydrocarbon bearing and the deep section of the well was therefore abandoned”, it added. Kidan also contains sour gas, with high levels of hydrogen sulphide, which means it is more dangerous and costly to process. “One zone was flowed at a rate of 50 million cubic feet per day of gas while the other zone was flowed at 40 million cubic feet of gas per day,” SRAK said in an emailed statement. The gas tested “is sour ... (with) 10-25 barrels of condensate liquids (per one million cubic feet of gas)”. The same well showed that another area, called Khuff reservoirs “was not hydrocarbon bearing and the deep section of the well was therefore abandoned”, it added. SRAK began exploring in 2004 for gas, condensate and natural gas liquids in nine blocks in two separate parts of the Empty Quarter. Kidan is near the 750,000 barrels per day (bpd) Shaybah oilfield. SRAK has drilled at the field which was an old Aramco discovery. Kidan contains sour gas, which means it is more dangerous and costly to process. Sour gas has high levels of potentially deadly hydrogen sulphide. Aramco's Chief Executive Khaled Al-Faleh said last month that the drilling outcome was promising at the Kidan field and that that Aramco and Royal Dutch Shell are studying its development. The Kingdom is short of gas to meet demand from power plants and industry. Energy consumption has risen in the world's top oil exporter in recent years, especially when record oil export revenues fuelled an economic boom. SRAK plans to drill wells in Zaynan-2 and Umm Quloob-1, it said in the statement without giving a timeframe. “These will be the fifth and sixth wells of the seven-well first exploration period,” it added.
