Ghawar

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Ghawar ( Arabic الغوار al-Ghawār , DMG al-Ġawār ) is the largest known oil field in the world. It is located near the city of Hofuf in Saudi Arabia and was discovered in 1948/49. It is estimated that 60% to 65% of Saudi Arabia's oil production in 1948-2000 came from this one oil field. The current production volume is estimated at 5 million barrels (1 barrel = 159 liters) per day, which corresponds to over 5% of world production (~ 89 million barrels per day).

Oil production history and comparison between oil production and drilling rigs used in Saudi Arabia

Initial estimates assume that Ghawar contains a total of 170 billion barrels of oil and around 60 billion are recoverable. The following estimates of the recoverable amount of oil in Ghawar varied between 70 and 170 gigabarrel. Saudi Aramco announced that by April 2010, 65 billion barrels of oil had already been produced in Ghawar. At the same time it was announced that the field originally contained over 100 billion barrels of recoverable reserves. The field also supplies around 57 million cubic meters of natural gas per day.

Currently, 8 million barrels of seawater are pumped into the oil field every day to keep oil production going. Around 2005 there was intense discussion that the Ghawar oil field had reached its maximum oil production and was already on the sloping slope of the production curve. In an article on August 9, 2006, the energy specialist website Energy and Capital reported that a spokesman for the state-owned Saudi oil production company Saudi Aramco had admitted a reduction in production of the oldest oil fields in Aramco (including Ghawars) of 8% per year.

Ghawar had its peak 30 years ago, but production was deliberately reduced back then. In 1981, 5.7 million barrels were produced daily. However, the recession in the USA and the oversupply of oil in the 1980s caused Saudi Aramco to cut production in order not to let prices fall further, making the Russian oil field Samotlor the field with the highest production rate for several years. Investments in the field between 1994 and 1996 increased production again to over 5 million barrels per day - more than Samotlor ever produced.

The US oil investment banker Matthew R. Simmons had in his 2006 book When the Desert Runs Out of Oil. The Coming Oil Shock in Saudi Arabia - Opportunities and Risks The alleged decline in production of Ghawar was described as a sign of a global production peak and warned of a turbulent downturn marked by major economic, political and social tensions.

The novelist Andreas Eschbach used this thesis as the background for his novel Burned Out .

Abdallah Dschumʿa , CEO of Aramco, on the other hand, believes (2008) the fears about the global production maximum as drastically exaggerated.

This was given by Michael T. Klare of Hampshire College in Amherst, Mass. in spring 2006 contrary to the following assessment by the US Department of Energy:

“The most striking sign of this changed view of things is the new assessment by the US Department of Energy in the new International Energy Outlook, which was presented in July 2005. We remember that this publication had forecast the year before that Saudi production would increase by 12.3 mdb to 22.5 mdb in the first quarter of the 21st century. The new edition, however, sees an increase of only 6.1 mdb for the same period, which is less than half of the increase forecast for 2004. Today, the US Department of Energy predicts that Saudi oil production will only rise to 16.3 mdb by 2025. This U-turn is not explained in detail in the publication. But one can assume that the analyzes presented by Simmons and other skeptics are now also influencing official thinking in Washington. "

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References

  1. ↑ April 2010 - 65 billion barrels of oil produced in Ghawar so far
  2. ^ Energy and Capital: The World's Largest Oil Field is Dying ( Memento of August 18, 2006 in the Internet Archive ). August 9, 2006
  3. ^ The Seattle Times: Is Saudi supply pushing its limit? ( Memento of May 28, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) August 15, 2006
  4. ↑ Ghawar - Historical Facts
  5. ↑ Matthew Simmons (2005) predicted an oil price of at least $ 200 per barrel for 2010 and then concluded a public bet of $ 10,000 with the business journalist. Tierney considers bulls in the raw materials sector - with reference to Julian L. Simon  - to be fundamentally limited. See John Tierney: The $ 10,000 Question . In: The New York Times . August 23, 2005
  6. ^ Peter Glover: Aramco Chief Debunks Peak Oil ( Memento from February 15, 2012 in the Internet Archive ). In: Energy Tribune. January 17, 2008
  7. ↑ Michael T. Klare: The Saudis' oil is not enough . In: Le Monde diplomatique . March 10, 2006

Coordinates: 25 ° 1 '  N , 49 ° 34'  E