Press Corps Visits Khurais
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Author: Mark Kennedy (Saudi Aramco News)
Released 25 June 2008
KHURAIS, June 25, 2008 -- During a trip to Khurais on June 22, about 100 local and international journalists got a first-hand look at one of Saudi Aramco’s most impressive mega-project wow-factors.
With a production capacity of 1.2 million barrels per day, the Khurais Field Development Program is the largest industrial undertaking of its kind in the history of the industry.
Local and international journalists get a chance to personally capture the massive scale of construction and and effort being put into one of Saudi Aramco’s most impressive mega projects.The journalists were attendees of the Jiddah Energy Meeting, which was called for by the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, King Abdullah ibn Abdulaziz Al Saud. They were flown to Khurais for a tour of the Central Processing Facility and the Residential/Administration complex.
The massive steel and concrete facility rising up out of the otherwise open desert creates a commanding first impression. The sheer quantity of the materials that has gone into its construction is mind-boggling. A short list includes 470,000 cubic meters of cement, 145,000 tons of structural steel, 4,000 kilometers of piping and 10,720 kilometers of cable.
Amin H. Nasser, senior vice president of Exploration and Producing, welcomed the journalists to Khurais by saying, “As you can see, Saudi Aramco has been diligently responding to the challenge of increasing global demand for energy in a big way.”
Prior to their tour, the journalists were treated to presentations covering various aspects of the Khurais project including an overview of the Khurais development program by Khalid M. Abdulqader, manager of Khurais Development Program; a project status update by Mohammed H. Rabeh, manager of Khurais Projects Department; a presentation on the Khurais reservoir by Fahad A. Al-Ajmi, general supervisor of Reservoir Management; and an introduction to the latest reservoir management technology that will be employed at Khurais by Muhammad M. Saggaf, manager of EXPEC Advanced Research Center.
Also participating in the Khurais site visit were Abdulla A. Naim, vice president, Petroleum Engineering; Majid Y. Al-Mugla, executive director, Project Management; Faysal H. Al-Khaldi, executive director, Southern Area Oil Operations; Khaled A. Al-Buraik, Chief Petroleum Engineer; and Mohammad Al-Juwair, general manager, Southern Area Projects.
Khurais is just one of several mega-projects currently in progress. Their combined output, said Nasser, is expected to boost Saudi Aramco’s production capacity by 20 percent, going from 10 million barrels per day in 2004, to 11 million barrels per day currently, and to 12 million barrels per day by the end of next year.
The Khurais facilities will be able to process 1.2 million barrels of Arabian Light crude. A new gas plant will treat the associated gas, producing 70,000 barrels per day of condensate and 420 million cubic feet per day of gas.
The program will also increase the existing East-West NGL Pipeline capacity from 425,000 barrels per day to 555,000 barrels per day to manage the additional NGL produced at Khurais. Infrastructure work includes an airstrip, residential facilities for up to 1,000 full-time personnel and an industrial complex to handle facility maintenance.
The Khurais Central Processing Facility is currently 55 percent complete and is projected to be on-stream by June 2009.
The Khurais oil processing facility is a testament to Saudi Aramco’s unwavering commitment to do what it takes to meet the growing global demand for petroleum when it is called upon to do so.
“Our actions have been louder than our words, despite all the critics and all the cynics,” Nasser said. “Let me acknowledge that we are sometimes criticized for not being more forthcoming about our work. But in Saudi Aramco we have a tradition of letting our actions and accomplishments speak for themselves.”
(Article by Mark Kennedy)