The ongoing conference in Dammam on the Kingdom’s mega-projects in the oil and gas sector has urged both Saudi and foreign companies to form consortia in order to invest in these projects, which are estimated to be worth SR487.5 billion [U.S. $130 billion]. Meanwhile, Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources Ali Al-Naimi today announced that Saudi Aramco has discovered a new oilfield in the Eastern Province.

The three-day conference, which opened on Saturday, has been organized by the Eastern Province Chamber of Commerce and Industry (EPCCI). Topics under discussion are investment opportunities in areas such as transportation and infrastructure, as well as natural gas exploration, the manufacture of petrochemicals, power generation, water desalination, and mining. EPCCI organized the first such international gas conference in May of last year.

The new oil well, Hulfa-1, which is located about 200 miles south of Dhahran and 175 miles southeast of Riyadh, was tested on April 20, 2005, and gave a flow averaging 6,000 barrels per day of light crude, with a density of 36 degrees according to the scale of the American Petroleum Institute. Associated natural gas is averaging 4.2 million cubic feet per day.

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