Saudi Arabia: With shale gas approval, the long haul begins

Saudi Aramco has been given regulatory approval to develop the Al-Jafurah shale gas field in Eastern Province, the kingdom’s largest non-associated gas field. The resource covers an area of 170km by 100km; Aramco said it was believed to hold some 200trn cubic feet of rich raw gas (without defining whether these reserves were proven or otherwise, and what percentage of that gas it expects could be recovered). If exploited, these reserves could be used as feedstock for the petrochemicals industry, thereby helping with economic diversification efforts, and/or displace crude and fuel oil from power generation.