Saudi Arabia has embarked on a strategy to maintain a
low depletion rate of its oil reserves.
A senior official of the state-owned Saudi Aramco told a conference in
Houston on Sept. 27 that the strategy called for the depletion of its oil
fields by one to three percent annually. Nasen Saleri, Aramco's manager of
reservoir management, said this strategy would remain in effect until at
least 2030, Middle East Newsline reported.
Saleri told the Society of Petroleum Engineers Annual Technical
Conference and Exhibition that the Saudi decision to increase production to
10 million barrels of oil per day would not violate Aramco policy. He said
Saudi production has reached 9.8 million barrels per day because Armaco
could not find buyers for some of its heavier crude oil at the price sought
by Riyad.
Aramco was also considering increasing output capacity to up to 15
million barrels per day, Saleri said.
