Ghawar Field

Infobox Oil field
name = Ghawar
country = Saudi Arabia
coordinates = coord|25.010951|N|49.334106|E|region:SA_type:landmark_scale:3000000|display=inline,title
locblock =
offonshore = Onshore
operators = Saudi Aramco
partners =


caption =
discovery = 1948
startofproduction = 1951
peakofproduction = 2005 (contested)
expectedabandonment =
currentproductionoil = convert|5|Moilbbl/d|m3/d|abbr=on
currentproductiongas =
estimatedstoiipoil = convert|120|Goilbbl|m3|abbr=on
estimatedstoiipgas = convert|110|Tcuft|km3|abbr=on
producingformations = Upper/Middle Jurassic, Upper/Lower Permian, Lower Devonian

Ghawar (Arabic:الغوار) is an oil field in Saudi Arabia. It is located about 100 km WSW from the city of Dhahran in Al-Ahsa county of the Eastern Province. Measuring 280 km by 30 km, it is by far the largest conventional oil field in the world. [ [http://www.aapg.org/explorer/2005/01jan/ghawar.cfm Ghawar 01:2005 EXPLORER ] ] The field is entirely owned and operated by Saudi Aramco, the nationalized Saudi oil company. Relatively little is known about Ghawar because the company and Saudi government closely guard field performance information and per-field production details. Available information is predominantly historical (pre-nationalization), from incidental technical publications, or anecdotal.

Geology

Ghawar occupies an anticline above a basement fault block dating to Carboniferous time, about 320 million years ago; Cretaceous tectonic activity, as the northeast margin of Africa began to impinge on southwest Asia, enhanced the structure. Reservoir rocks are Jurassic Arab-D limestones with exceptional porosity (as much as 35% of the rock in places), sourced from the Jurassic Hanifa formation, a marine shelf deposit of mud and lime with as much as 5% organic material (1% to 2% is considered good oil source rock). The seal is an evaporitic package of rocks including impermeable anhydrite.

History

Historically, Ghawar has been subdivided into five production areas, from north to south, 'Ain Dar and Shedgum, 'Uthmaniyah, Hawiyah and Haradh. The major oasis of Al-Ahsa and the city of Al-Hofuf are located on Ghawar's east flank, corresponding to the 'Uthmaniyah production area. Ghawar was discovered in 1948 and put on stream in 1951. [cite web
url=http://www.aapg.org/explorer/2005/01jan/ghawar.cfm
title=The Elephant of All Elephants
publisher=AAPG ] [cite news
url=http://www.energybulletin.net/1269.html
title=Trouble in the World's Largest Oil Field-Ghawar
publisher=Energy Bulletin
date=2004-07-24
author=Glenn Morton ] Some sources claim Ghawar peaked in 2005, though this is strongly contested by the field operators. [cite news
url=http://www.energybulletin.net/5065.html
date=2005-03-31
title=Has Ghawar truly peaked?
author=Donald Coxe ] [cite news | title=Bank says Saudi's top field in decline | last= Porter | first = Adam | work = English Al-Jazeera | date = April 12 2005 | url=http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/08B97BCF-7BE6-4F1D-A846-7ACB9B0F8894.htm | accessdate = 2006-09-05]

Production

Approximately 60-65% of all Saudi oil produced between 1948 and 2000 came from Ghawar. Cumulative production to the end of 2005 was about 60 billion barrels. [ [http://www.gregcroft.com/ghawar.ivnu based on Croft] ] Currently, Ghawar is estimated to produce over 5 million barrels (800,000 m³) of oil a day (6.25% of global production).

Ghawar also produces approximately convert|2|Gcuft|m3 of natural gas per day.

Field Reserves

Saudi Aramco has stated that it has more than convert|71|Goilbbl|km3 of proven reserves remaining. Matthew Simmons, in his book "Twilight in the Desert", suggests that production from the Ghawar field and Saudi Arabia, may soon peak.cite book
last = Simmons
first = Matthew
authorlink = Matthew Simmons
title = Twilight in the Desert - The coming Saudi oil shock and the world economy.
year = 2005
isbn = 0-471-73876-X]

When appraised in the 1970s, the field was assessed to have convert|170|Goilbbl|km3 of original oil in place, with about convert|60|Goilbbl|km3 recoverable (1975 Aramco estimate quoted by Matt Simmons). The second figure, at least, was understated, since that production figure has already been exceeded.

See also

* List of oil fields
* Peak Oil

References

External links

*
*
* [http://www.newcolonist.com/ghawar.html A theoretical look at the future of the field]
* [http://www.theoildrum.com/tag/ghawar Articles on Ghawar and analysis on its reserves] from The Oil Drum
* [http://globalguerrillas.typepad.com/globalguerrillas/2004/05/journal_oil_con.html Terrorists and Ghawar]
* [http://www.saudiaramco.com Saudi Aramco website] (source of most data in this article).