Saudi Aramco said Wednesday that its oil output dropped by around one million barrels per day last year, but that it has boosted natural gas reserves by over four percent. In its 2009 annual review posted on its website, Saudi Aramco said that crude production fell to 7.9 million barrels per day in 2009, a fall reflecting compliance with the 4.2-million-barrel-per-day cut in quotas brought in by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries in 2009 when the group was struggling with crude prices hit by the global economic meltdown. The report said Aramco added 12.2 trillion cubic feet of non-associated natural gas reserves in 2009, a boost for the Kingdom with its ever-increasing demand for energy. Saudi Aramco said it expects work on Karan, its first non-associated gas field project, to conclude in 2013 with a capacity to process 1.8 billion cubic feet per day (cfd). According to the report, Aramco expects to start producing 450 million cfd of gas from the first phase of the Karan project by mid-2011. “When completed in 2013, the increment will be capable of delivering 1.8 billion cfd of raw gas via a 110-km subsea pipeline to the Khursaniyah Gas Plant,” the report said.
