Analysis Oil & Gas Aramco focuses spending on gas and Jafurah fields By Eva Levesque March 7, 2025, 2:11 PM Aramco The Fadhili gas plant, which Aramco is developing as part of a 'master gas system' Natural gas prioritised over oil Higher returns for gas Jafurah key to hydrocarbons Saudi Aramco, the world’s largest oil company by value, has said it is focusing its spending on developing natural gas over oil reserves because of higher returns. The Saudi kingdom, the world’s second-largest oil producer after the US, is developing its gas reserves to supply its petrochemical and fertiliser industries and to power its electricity-generating stations. At the heart of Aramco’s gas developments is its Jafurah field in the east of the Arabian peninsula and the kingdom’s largest non-associated gas field, meaning that its gas production is not a by-product of oil production. Oil production is subject to Opec quotas, which in turn can limit gas production from so-called associated fields. “Most of our upstream spending is on gas because there’s a huge gas demand,” Amin Nasser, Aramco’s CEO, said in an analysts’ earnings call this week. “We are getting double-digit returns [from gas].” Jafurah, which Aramco has been developing since 2021, is also the Middle East’s largest liquid-rich shale gas project. In a report this month, the local Jadwa Investment group said Jafurah and other gas developments are important to the wider hydrocarbon economy. “While we typically peg oil GDP [gross domestic product] forecasts to oil production, gas development has potential to largely contribute to growth in the coming years,” Jadwa said. Jafurah, which holds about 229 trillion cubic feet of gas and 75 billion barrels of condensate – a gas in liquid form – is expected to come on stream this year, starting at 200 million cubic feet per day (cfd). Aramco has so far awarded about 16 contracts worth around $12.4 billion for a second phase of development, which should increase production at Jafurah ten-fold to 2 billion cfd in 2030. Last month, Nasser told the Al-Ahsa Investment Forum that the value of investment in Jafurah would total more than $100 billion over the next 15 years and add $23 billion to Saudi GDP. Jafurah’s reserves are equivalent to about 25 percent of Qatar’s North Field, which is the world’s largest non-associated gas field. Overall, Aramco’s target is to increase natural gas output by more than 60 percent by 2030 compared with 2021. With this in mind, it is developing other fields too, such as Tanajib and Fadhili, and has awarded contracts for phase three of a master gas system (MGS). The MGS is set to expand the kingdom’s gas pipeline network by 4,000 kilometres and add 3 billion cfd capacity by 2028. Aramco slashes blue ammonia output to reduce costs Aramco dividend vital to big-spending Saudi Arabia Aramco pays $21bn dividend despite 2024 profit slip Saudi Arabia’s interest in Jafurah is not limited to gas in gas form. The field is forecast to generate 630,000 barrels per day of gas liquids and 418 million cfd of ethane. This will support the kingdom’s vital petrochemical industries. “We are big in petrochemicals [with] Sabic and other entities,” Nasser said. “The total ethane available in the kingdom amounts to about one billion cubic feet; Al Jafurah will add 40 percent.” Saudi Basic Industries Corp or Sabic is regularly among the world’s five biggest petrochemical companies by revenue.
