Saudi Arabia’s Minister of Energy Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman announced this week that two new unconventional gas deposits had been discovered in the east of the kingdom. State energy giant Saudi Aramco says that two wells from the “Awtad” discovery 142km southwest of the city of Hofuf flowed at a combined 26.9mn cfd and 905 b/d of condensate. Meanwhile wells at the “Al Dahna” discovery 230km southwest of nearby Dhahran flowed at a combined 25.6mn cfd and 362 b/d condensate.

The announced locations indicate that the discoveries are in the southern portion of the giant Ghawar oil field, which is a key area of focus for the kingdom’s unconventional development plans (MEES, 3 December 2021). This also locates them close to the Samna unconventional discovery announced earlier this year where three wells produced around 30mn cfd and 200 b/d of condensate (MEES, 4 March). (CONTINUED - 190 WORDS)