New Aramco plan to focus on gas finds

Saudi Arabia will give priority to finding more gas to meet a rapid increase in domestic consumption during the next five years, said the kingdom's state oil operator.

Saudi Aramco, the world's largest oil producing company, said its 2011-2015 business plan would also focus on meeting global crude demand but expressed cautious optimism on its outlook.

Aramco's President and CEO Khalid Al Falih outlined the five-year plan at a management meeting in the eastern oil hub of Dhahran this week, the company said in a statement on its website.

"One of the most significant challenges the company and the kingdom face during the business plan period is increasing domestic energy demand, which is escalating continuously," he said.

"In response to this challenge, we are increasing our efforts to find and develop gas… and we will remain engaged in helping to optimise the kingdom's energy consumption."

Al Falih said Aramco, which controls over a fifth of the world's oil resources, would also base its plan on the global economic and oil demand outlook, which has been hit by the fiscal crisis.

"It entails significant responsibility to continuously scrutinise and optimise each and every one of our plans," Al Falih said. "The basis for the plan is a global economic and oil demand outlook with an emphasis on cautious optimism."

Al Falih said Aramco, which has pumped oil for nearly 77 years, is at the peak of the industry and at the peak of the kingdom's business enterprises.

"We are considered best in class and best in the kingdom by the best companies," he said.

"Fiscal discipline has to be one of the main themes that you take away today... we all need to continue to sharpen our business performance and elevate our game. We cannot afford to spend capital dollars on anything less than excellence."

Saudi Arabia by far has the world's largest proven oil reserves of around 265 billion barrels and the fourth gas deposits after Russia, Iran and Qatar, estimated at 7.5 trillion cubic metres.

The kingdom has been locked in an extensive programme to hunt for more gas to meet a steady rise in domestic consumption.

Unlike Qatar, most of Saudi Arabia's gas resources are associated with oil, making their separation a costly process and entailing an increase in the country's oil output, which runs counter to its Opec-assigned quota and its role as the world's swing producer.

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