The Saudi state oil company Aramco, which has a monopoly on production in the kingdom, gave an upbeat assessment Saturday of its achievements in 1999, saying it made progress in oil exploration, production, refining and distribution.
Aramco director Abdullah bin Jomaa listed in the company's annual report accomplishments such as "the inauguration of a development project for the giant oilfield of Shiba, in the center of the kingdom, to bring its capacity to 500,000 barrels a day."
"Aramco also started a development project for the Ras Tannura refinery, in the east of the kingdom, to bring its capacity to 310,000 barrels a day," Jomaa said, as reported by the official Saudi Press Agency.
Jomaa also mentioned the start of an 820-kilometer (490-mile) oil pipeline project in eastern Saudi Arabia, which will have a capacity of 285,000 barrels a day.
"The oil pipeline will permit the transit of oil products from the production region of Dahran to the distribution centers of Riyadh and Al-Qasim," 350 kilometers (210 miles) north of the capital, he said.In the past the oil products were transported by tanker truck.
Saudi Arabia, the world's largest oil producer, pumps more than eight million barrels a day. It has the world's largest oil reserves, estimated at 261 billion barrels, or more than a quarter of the world's total.
The kingdom also has about 776 billion cubic meters of natural gas, the fourth largest reserve in the Middle East after Iran, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.—AFP
©--Agence France Presse.
© 2000 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
