Ghawar Field

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  2. Eastern Province, Saudi Arabia
  3. Oil fields of Saudi Arabia
  4. Saudi Aramco
  5. Oil field disputes


This article is about an oil field. For a similarly pronounced mathematical object, see Galois field.
Ghawar Field
Country Saudi Arabia
Location Khobar, Eastern Province
Offshore/onshore Onshore
Coordinates

25°25′48″N 49°37′12″E / 25.43°N 49.62°E / 25.43; 49.62Coordinates: 25°25′48″N 49°37′12″E / 25.43°N 49.62°E / 25.43; 49.62{{#coordinates:25.43|N|49.62|E|region:SA_type:landmark_scale:3000000|||| |primary |name=

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Operator(s) Saudi Aramco
Field history
Discovery 1948
Start of production 1951
Peak year 2005 (Contested)
Production
Current production of oil 5,000,000 barrels per day (~Expression error: Unexpected < operator.Expression error: Unexpected < operator.Expression error: Unexpected < operator.Expression error: Unexpected < operator.Expression error: Unexpected < operator.Expression error: Unexpected < operator.Expression error: Unexpected < operator.Expression error: Unexpected < operator.Expression error: Unexpected < operator.Expression error: Unexpected < operator.Expression error: Unexpected < operator.Expression error: Unexpected < operator.Expression error: Unexpected < operator.Expression error: Unexpected < operator.×10^Expression error: Unexpected < operator. t/a)
Current production of gas 2,000 million cubic feet per day (57×10^6 m3/d)
Estimated oil in place 71,000 million barrels (~Expression error: Unexpected < operator.Expression error: Unexpected < operator.Expression error: Unexpected < operator.Expression error: Unexpected < operator.Expression error: Unexpected < operator.Expression error: Unexpected < operator.Expression error: Unexpected < operator.Expression error: Unexpected < operator.Expression error: Unexpected < operator.Expression error: Unexpected < operator.Expression error: Unexpected < operator.Expression error: Unexpected < operator.Expression error: Unexpected < operator.Expression error: Unexpected < operator.×10^Expression error: Unexpected < operator. t)
Estimated gas in place 110,000 billion cubic feet (3,100×10^9 m3)
Producing formations Upper/Middle Jurassic, Upper/Lower Permian, Lower Devonian

Ghawar (Arabic:الغوار) is an oil field in Saudi Arabia. It is located in Al-Ahssa, Saudi Arabia. Measuring 280 by 30 km (170 by 19 mi), it is by far the largest conventional oil field in the world.[1] The field is entirely owned and operated by Saudi Aramco, the nationalized Saudi oil company. Relatively little is known about Ghawar because the company and Saudi government closely guard field performance information and per-field production details. Available information is predominantly historical (pre-nationalization), from incidental technical publications, or anecdotal.

Geology

Ghawar occupies an anticline above a basement fault block dating to Carboniferous time, about 320 million years ago; Cretaceous tectonic activity, as the northeast margin of Africa began to impinge on southwest Asia, enhanced the structure. Reservoir rocks are Jurassic Arab-D limestones with exceptional porosity (as much as 35% of the rock in places), sourced from the Jurassic Hanifa formation, a marine shelf deposit of mud and lime with as much as 5% organic material (1% to 7% is considered good oil source rock). The seal is an evaporitic package of rocks including impermeable anhydrite.

History

Historically, Ghawar has been subdivided into five production areas, from north to south: 'Ain Dar and Shedgum, 'Uthmaniyah, Hawiyah and Haradh. The major oasis of Al-Ahsa and the city of Al-Hofuf are located on Ghawar's east flank, corresponding to the 'Uthmaniyah production area. Ghawar was discovered in 1948 and put on stream in 1951.[2][3] Some sources claim Ghawar peaked in 2005, though this is strongly contested by the field operators.[4][5]

Saudi Aramco reports that Ghawar has produced 48% of its proven reserves[6]

According to Aramco data Ghawar has produced 50% of recoverable reserves as of June 27, 2011[7]

Production

Approximately 60-65% of all Saudi oil produced between 1948 and 2000 came from Ghawar. Cumulative production until April 2010 has exceeded 65 billion barrels (10.3 km3).[8] Currently, Ghawar is estimated to produce over 5 million barrels (790,000 m3) of oil a day (6.25% of global production).

Ghawar also produces approximately 2 billion cubic feet (57,000,000 m3) of natural gas per day.

Reserves

In April 2010, Saad al-Treiki, Vice-President for Operations at Aramco, stated in a news conference reported in Saudi media that over 65 billion barrels (10.3 km3) have been produced from the field since 1951. Treiki further stated that the total reserves of the field had originally exceeded 100 billion barrels (16 km3)[9]

Matthew Simmons, in his book Twilight in the Desert, suggests that production from the Ghawar field and Saudi Arabia may soon peak.[10]

When appraised in the 1970s, the field was assessed to have 170 billion barrels (27 km3) of original oil in place, with about 60 billion barrels (9.5 km3) recoverable (1975 Aramco estimate quoted by Matt Simmons). The second figure, at least, was understated, since that production figure has already been exceeded.[10]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Ghawar 01:2005 EXPLORER
  2. ↑ "The Elephant of All Elephants". AAPG. http://www.aapg.org/explorer/2005/01jan/ghawar.cfm.
  3. ↑ Glenn Morton (2004-07-24). "Trouble in the World's Largest Oil Field-Ghawar". Energy Bulletin. http://www.energybulletin.net/1269.html.
  4. ↑ Donald Coxe (2005-03-31). "Has Ghawar truly peaked?". http://www.energybulletin.net/5065.html.
  5. ↑ Porter, Adam (April 12, 2005). "Bank says Saudi's top field in decline". English Al-Jazeera. http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/08B97BCF-7BE6-4F1D-A846-7ACB9B0F8894.htm. Retrieved 2006-09-05.
  6. ↑ "Saudi Arabia Energy Data, Statistics and Analysis - Oil, Gas, Electricity, Coal". 2008-08-01. http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/cabs/Saudi_Arabia/Oil.html.
  7. ↑ "Saudi Aramco Loses Count, Drills Too Many Wells In Ghawar". 2011-06-27. http://www.theoildrum.com/node/6248.
  8. ↑ based on Croft
  9. ↑ "أرامكو: «الغوار» ما زال قويا بـ«100» مليار برميل". 2010. http://www.alyaum.com/issue/article.php?IN=13447&I=750340.
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 Script error

External links

ca:Ghawar cs:Ghawar de:Ghawar es:Campo Ghawar eo:Ghawar fa:میدان غوار fr:Ghawar gl:Ghawar is:Ghawar it:Ghawar nl:Ghawar ja:ガワール油田 no:Ghawarfeltet nn:Ghawarfeltet ro:Câmpul Ghawar ru:Гавар (месторождение) fi:Ghawar sv:Ghawarfältet uk:Гавар zh:加瓦尔油田


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