For the 18th year in a row, Saudi Aramco has been named the No. 1 oil company in the world by Petroleum Intelligence Weekly (PIW). The energy trade journal also sees the company's lead lengthening. "Aramco's massive upstream and downstream investment plans dwarf those of any other oil company and mean that its top spot in the PIW Top 50 seems increasingly invulnerable," it said. The core of that investment is the company's drive to increase oil-production capacity by 1.5 million barrels per day (bpd) over the next three years in order to meet ever-increasing world demand, according to a report carried by Saudi Aramco's web-site. Expansion of onshore and offshore fields, like this at Safaniya, is contributing to Saudi Aramco's dominance of the Petroleum Intelligence Weekly list of top 50 companies. Fields being developed or expanded offshore and on shore include Manifa, Safaniya, Zuluf, Marjan, Shaybah, Haradh, Abu Hadriyah-Fadhili-Khursaniyah, Khurais and Nuayyim. And to develop those fields, Drilling and Workover is heading toward 120 rigs in operation, up from 45 in 2005. --MORE
