Saudi Aramco Unleashes Shale Gas Revolution in the Arabian Desert

Saudi Aramco is pushing forward with a massive natural gas megaproject in the Arabian Desert, which could boost the kingdom's revenues by billions of dollars in the coming years. The project, located at the Jafurah basin southeast of Saudi Arabia's giant Ghawar oilfield, has brought in US and Chinese firms like Halliburton and Sinopec to deploy advanced machinery.

Aramco aims to replace 500,000 barrels per day of crude used for domestic power generation with gas by 2030, freeing up the crude for export. At current prices, this would generate nearly $12.8 billion in revenue a year. Aramco expects the gas expansion to generate incremental operating cash flows of $12 billion to $15 billion in 2030.

The Jafurah basin is estimated to contain 229 trillion standard cubic feet of raw gas and 75 billion barrels of condensate, making it potentially the biggest shale gas development outside the US. Aramco has announced around $26 billion worth of contracts for Jafurah's first two phases since 2018.