Doha: Saudi Arabia, the Middle East's biggest economy, will facilitate private sector investment and joint ventures within the country's oil industry, and hopes to boost oil recovery rates through the development of new technologies, oil minister Ali Al Nuaimi said yesterday.
"We have no alternative but to encourage and fac-ilitate joint ventures and investments undertaken by the private sector and to promote synergy in technical education, studies and research, coupled with exchange of energy industry expertise," Al Nuaimi told an energy conference in Doha.
He added his government's future vision for the oil and gas sectors focuses on the role played by the private sector as a key partner in economic development and as a main source of relative advantage for the Saudi economy.
Contribution
"The private sector will contribute significantly to industries and services that support the oil and energy sector, whose value is estimated at $50 billion [Dh183.5 billion], and includes engineering, construction, the fabrication of materials such as pipes, and support services, large and small," Al Nuaimi said. "This sector is fully open to both the Saudi private sector and to foreign investment."
Al Nuaimi said Saudi Arabian Oil Co's research and development centre, which specialises in developing technologies for the kingdom's oil industry, have begun to bear fruit in exploration technology, reserves augmentation and recovery rate enhancement.
Newly developed technologies such as Giga Powers, a simulation system capable of simulating major reservoirs with the highest degree of clarity, are helping oil recovery rates in the kingdom, he added.
"These scientific developments and applications will contribute to improving recovery rates by 50 per cent overall, and by 70 per cent in the kingdom's key producing fields," Al Nuaimi said.
