Large volumes of natural gas have been found in the Red Sea, said the Energy Minister Khalid Al Falih.
Saudi oil giant Aramco is considering opportunities for acquisitions of liquefied natural gas (LNG) projects in the US, Al Falih said.
In January this year, Saudi Aramco’s chief executive Amin Nasser said in an interview that the oil firm was looking to spend billions of US dollars on natural gas acquisitions in the US as part of Aramco’s strategy to bolster its gas business and become a global natural gas player.
Last week, Nasser said at an industry event in London that Saudi Arabia aims to export as much as 3 billion cu ft of gas per day by 2030 as part of its goal to boost the international footprint of its natural gas business.
Aramco will solely develop Saudi Arabia’s conventional and unconventional gas reserves, and the options for exports include exports via pipelines and LNG, according to Aramco’s top manager.
In November last year, Nasser said at an event in Dubai that Saudi Aramco, already a top global oil producer but not as strong in gas production, will boost efforts to grow its natural gas output, from both conventional and unconventional reserves.
Saudi Aramco’s gas development programme is expected to attract as much as $150 billion in investment over the next decade, the report quoted Nasser as saying.
The top Aramco executive pointed out that natural gas production was expected to jump to 23 billion standard cu ft a day from the current 14 billion cu feet a day.
"We also have world-class unconventional gas resources that are rapidly supplementing our large conventional resources," remarked Nasser.
"Because a significant proportion of this unconventional gas is rich in both liquids and ethane, its production will play an important role in the further growth of the Kingdom’s chemicals sector," he added.
