Aramco to develop Red Sea, Midyan gas discoveries

Saudi Aramco will develop gas discoveries in the northern Red Sea and Midyan basin for power generation in the northwestern part of the kingdom.

Logistics of gas distribution weren’t clear, but the company plans supply gas to the port city of Duba and the city of Tabuk, 100 miles inland north of Duba and 60 miles south of the border with Jordan. The system may also supply other cities.

A late 2012 discovery well in the Red Sea 26 km northwest of Duba flowed gas at the rate of 10 MMcfd at a depth of 17,700 ft, the Saudi press quoted Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi as saying.

Saudi Aramco plans to drill seven delineation and development wells in shallow and deep water in a first phase. Bathymetric readings indicate that water in the area, south of the Gulf of Aqaba, is as deep as 1,200 m.

Saudi Aramco has let a contract to Saudi Ports Authority to construct facilities in Duba as a supply base for the drilling operations. The contract covers a pier and storage yard.

Saudi Aramco will start production in 2013 from Midyan gas-condensate field, discovered in the 1980s near Tabuk, said Khalid Al-Falih, president and chief executive officer.

Al-Falih said Saudi Aramco will pipe gas from Midyan field to Duba, where a power plant and distribution network will be built in Duba Industrial City.

Discoveries in the Midyan basin were in the Lower Miocene Maqna Group (OGJ Online, May 28, 2001). The Midyan-3 delineation well tested 2,300 b/d of 39° gravity sweet crude and 19 MMcfd of gas, establishing oil potential in the area.

Surface and subsurface data in the Midyan field area indicate a deep central basin bounded by Precambrian basement on the north and northeast with Cretaceous and Tertiary sediments exposed in an uplift on the northwest along the Gulf of Aqaba (OGJ, July 11, 1994, p. 47).