The first major contracts for Saudi Arabia’s Jafurah field were awarded last week The Kingdom aims to become the third-largest natural gas producer in the world by 2030 Saudi Arabia faces a number of major challenges in exploiting gas from the Jafurah field The first major contracts for Saudi Arabia’s Jafurah field – supposedly, the biggest shale gas field outside the U.S. – were awarded last week, as the Kingdom aims to become the third largest natural gas producer in the world by 2030, to the point where it could even become a net exporter of gas. This, in turn – if true – would allow Saudi to achieve its supposed aim of producing half of its electricity from gas and half from renewable energy sources in pursuit of its 2060 net-zero greenhouse gas emissions target. However, as analysed in depth in my new book on the global oil […]