Saudi Aramco hails new discoveries

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia, Jan. 6 (UPI) -- The Saudi petroleum minister said the state-owned Saudi Aramco found five new oil fields and three more gas fields in the eastern provinces.

Ali al-Naimi, the Saudi minister of petroleum and mineral resources, said three gas fields -- Arabiya-1, Rabeeb-1 and Hasba-16 -- were discovered in offshore areas along the Persian Gulf coast.

Two of the gas fields are situated around 100 miles northeast of the oil city of Dhahran. The Arabiya field, some 115 miles northeast of Dhahran, boasts a capacity of around 41.1 million cubic feet of gas per day, the Arab Times reported Tuesday.

Four of the five oil fields were also discovered in offshore regions. The largest well, Jaouf-11, was producing at a rate of 2,550 barrels per day in test drilling with the Nayashen-1 well at around 2,000 barrels per day.

The discoveries add to reserves held by Saudi Aramco, the largest oil and gas firm in the world. Saudi Arabia holds oil reserves of around 260 billion barrels, the world's fifth largest.