Ghawar Field

Ghawar Field is an oil field in Saudi Arabia. It is located about 100 km WSW from the city of Dhahran in the Eastern Province. Measuring 280 km by 30 km, this is by far the largest conventional oil field in the world. It is 100% owned and operated by the Saudi national oil company, Saudi Aramco.

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-Hasa 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.

Production

Approximately 60-65% of all Saudi oil produced between 1948 and 2000 came from Ghawar. Cumulative production to the end of 2005 was about 60 billion barrels (based on Croft). Currently, Ghawar produces over 5 million barrels (800,000 m³) of oil a day (6.25% of global production).

Field Reserves

Saudi Aramco has stated that it has more than 71 billion barrels of proven reserves remaining. Some people, such as Matthew Simmons in his book Twilight in the Desert, suggest that production from the Ghawar field and Saudi Arabia, may soon peak. However, Simmons' work has been strongly criticised by Aramco officials such as Nansen Saleri.

See also

• Saudi Arabia
• Peak Oil

References

• Simmons, Matthew. Twilight in the Desert: The coming Saudi oil shock and the world economy. 2005 ISBN 047173876X
• "Saudi Arabian Oil Fields Brimming". SAUDI-US RELATIONS INFORMATION SERVICE. Retrieved October 2. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
• "The Ghawar Oil Field, Saudi Arabia". Greg Croft Inc. Retrieved March 11. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)

External links

• A theoretical look at the future of the field
• Terrorists and Ghawar
• Saudi Aramco website (source of most data in this article).