Saudi Aramco to assess country's shale, tight gas reserves

Saudi Aramco has estimates of its tight and shale gas reserves but needs to complete an assessment before those reserves can be booked, CEO Khalid al-Faleh said.

We have numbers but they are only conceptual estimates but you need to be certain about the resource base, the reservoir characteristics, and more importantly until you prove that it can be produced commercially, you cannot book them, Faleh said.

He said that it will take a few more years of exploration and piloted production before the extent of reserves and its marketability can be determined.

Faleh said that the company is technically equipped and knowledgeable to undertake the exploration on its own.

Saudi Arabia has the world's fourth largest reserves of natural gas and Aramco is developing its first non-associated gas field, the 1.8 Bcf/d (51 million cubic meters/day) offshore Karan field, while also working in joint venture with foreign partners, including Shell, on a gas exploration program.

On economic feasibility of Saudi Arabia’s shale and tight gas reserves, he said the trade-off between saving high-value oil for future production and export and instead burning gas in applications that are suitable for gas as industry fuel, such as power generation, then obviously non-conventional gas has a place in the energy mix.

Considering the alternative of burning valuable liquids like crude oil and condensates, non-conventional gas will compete, he said.