Category:

Saudis launch major gas drilling in Red Sea

JEDDAH, Saudi Arabia, Nov. 21 (UPI) — Saudi Arabia is fast-tracking its first major offshore natural gas fields in the Red Sea, a high-priority project that’s seen as the start of a massive new energy program, off the kingdom’s west coast. The objective is to produce gas for power-generation to free up for export growing volumes of oil that are being used domestically to cope with a growing domestic demand. The kingdom’s giant state oil company, Aramco, has not disclosed any estimate of the Red Sea’s potential yet, “but there could be up to 100 billion barrels of oil equivalent under the sea bed,” observed analyst Persian Gulf analyst Kevin Baxter. That’s about equal to a 38 percent increase in the kingdom’s state oil reserves of 267 billion barrels, the largest in the world and overwhelmingly located on land in the Eastern province on the shores of the gulf […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

Saudi Arabia Won’t Make ‘Sharp’ Oil Output Cuts, Al Rajhi Says

Saudi Arabia is not expected to make “sharp” cuts to its crude production in November and December, Al Rajhi Capital said. “Any meaningful decline in the kingdom’s oil production will take place only when the majority of Libyan oil production comes back and Iranian oil production starts rising,” the investment arm of the nation’s biggest bank by market value said in an e-mailed report today. Saudi Arabia is burning more fuel oil at power plants instead of crude this year, “which means that the seasonality impact on crude production will be smaller in winter,” the investment bank said. To contact the reporter on this story: Wael Mahdi in Manama at [email protected] To contact the editor responsible for this story: Stephen Voss at [email protected]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

Israel Working With Saudi Arabia On Iran “Contingency” Attack

Israel Working With Saudi Arabia On Iran “Contingency” Attack Page added on November 17, 2013 When last week’s Iran nuclear talks were blocked by France , it provided a useful glimpse into just who it was that would benefit politically from a continuation of the regional confrontation. But while the French sabotage was an amusing distraction, it revealed a curious shift in middle-east alliances, namely old “enemies” Israel and Saudi Arabia, both feeling shunned by Big Brother, suddenly becoming the best of buddies. It was only a matter of time before this novel alliance moved beyond just paper and tested how far it could go in real life. Said test may come far sooner than expected: according to the Sunday Times, Israel’s Mossad and Saudi Arabia are planning an attack against Iran if negotiations and talks don’t come to an agreement , and that Saudia Arabia will permit Israel […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

After Clashes With Saudis, Laborers Opt to Go Home

BEIRUT, Lebanon — Thousands of foreign laborers turned themselves over to the authorities in Saudi Arabia on Sunday to be sent to their home countries after a night of protests and clashes in which one foreigner and one Saudi were killed. The protests were directed against a Saudi campaign to arrest and deport illegal immigrants who were given until last week to get valid work permits or leave the country. In recent days, the security forces have raided the work sites of large employers of foreign laborers and the neighborhoods where they live to round up violators. Saudi Arabia and other oil-rich Persian Gulf nations have long relied on large numbers of foreign laborers from Africa, Asia and elsewhere to keep their economies running by doing jobs like driving taxis and building skyscrapers as well as staffing hospitals, schools and universities. Human rights organizations have accused the gulf countries […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

Pakistan 'ready to deliver nuclear weapons to Saudi Arabia'

Intelligence sources say Pakistan-made nuclear weapons ready for delivery to Saudi Arabia as part of efforts to counter Iran’s atomic programme, but Islamabad says claims ‘baseless’ Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs also dismissed the allegations as “baseless”, as did General Hamid Gul, a former head of the ISI intelligence service. Saudi officials have long told their American allies that they planned to obtain atomic weapons if Iran went nuclear. The latest reports suggests they could be ready even sooner. Amos Yadlin, a former head of Israeli military intelligence, told a conference in Sweden last month that if Iran got the bomb, “the Saudis will not wait one month. They already paid for the bomb, they will go to Pakistan and bring what they need to bring”. Pakistan declared itself as a nuclear armed state in 1998 with its first test. It has never signed up non-proliferation agreements and has […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

Pakistan ‘ready to deliver nuclear weapons to Saudi Arabia’

Intelligence sources say Pakistan-made nuclear weapons ready for delivery to Saudi Arabia as part of efforts to counter Iran’s atomic programme, but Islamabad says claims ‘baseless’ Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs also dismissed the allegations as “baseless”, as did General Hamid Gul, a former head of the ISI intelligence service. Saudi officials have long told their American allies that they planned to obtain atomic weapons if Iran went nuclear. The latest reports suggests they could be ready even sooner. Amos Yadlin, a former head of Israeli military intelligence, told a conference in Sweden last month that if Iran got the bomb, “the Saudis will not wait one month. They already paid for the bomb, they will go to Pakistan and bring what they need to bring”. Pakistan declared itself as a nuclear armed state in 1998 with its first test. It has never signed up non-proliferation agreements and has […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

Saudis round up thousands of illegal immigrants

DUBAI (Reuters) – Saudi authorities rounded up thousands of illegal foreign workers at the start of a nationwide crackdown ultimately aimed at creating more jobs for locals, media reported on Tuesday. Hundreds of thousands of workers have already left the kingdom following a grace period of seven months during which authorities told expatriates that if they did not fix their legal status they had to leave the country or face jail. The government hopes that reducing the number of illegal workers will create opportunities for Saudi job-seekers. The official Saudi unemployment rate is 12 percent but excludes a large number of citizens who say they are not seeking a job. However, the majority of the kingdom’s nine million foreigners are unskilled laborers or domestic workers, jobs usually shunned by Saudis. "Since early (Monday) morning, the security campaign got off to a vigorous start as inspectors swung into action," Nawaf […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

Saudi Arabia, Emirates lead charge on Mideast solar power

ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates, Nov. 1 (UPI) — Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, two of the world’s leading oil producers, are spearheading a Middle Eastern drive to develop solar energy, with plans for projects requiring $1.5 billion in investment by the end of 2014. The program, designed to free up for export increasing amounts of oil and gas being used domestically for power generation, got a major endorsement from the Arab Forum for Environment and Development Monday. It urged Arab states to re-evaluate their relationship with oil, the economic mainstay of the Arab world since the 1950s, and phase out state energy subsidies to focus investment in developing renewable energy. “Oil and gas are important, they will continue to be important,” said Najib Saab, the forum’s secretary-general. “We call for more careful use of oil and gas and for more serious development of renewable energy.” Saudi […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

Angry Over Syrian War, Saudis Fault U.S. Policy

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — Saudi Arabia has abandoned its traditional policy of discretion in recent weeks, signaling deep anger at the Obama administration’s Middle East policies and threatening to break with its most powerful ally and pursue a more robust and independent role in supporting the rebellion against President Bashar al-Assad of Syria. But privately, Saudi officials concede that their efforts to forge an alternative strategy in Syria have run up against the same issue the Americans face: how to bolster the military might of a disorganized armed opposition without also empowering the jihadists who increasingly dominate its ranks. And while Saudi officials have hinted at a broader diplomatic shift away from the United States, their options are limited there, too: Saudi Arabia is dependent on American military and oil technology, and the other countries the Saudis have courted — including France and India — can help only on […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

Saudi Aramco project to lift Khurais flow

Saudi Aramco has let a contract to Foster Wheeler AG units for front-end engineering design (FEED) of a 300,000-b/d expansion of production capacity at the Khurais complex of oil fields, 150 km southeast of Riyadh. Current capacity is 1.2 million b/d of Arabian Light crude from Khurais, Abu Jifan, and Mazalij fields, which began production in 2009. The project aims to increase capacity at the Khurais Central Processing Facilities and enhance production from Jifan and Mazalij through installation of a satellite gas-oil separation plant. Khurais facilities now can handle 70,000 b/d of condensate and 320 MM scfd of natural gas produced in association with oil. In addition to FEED work, subsidiaries of Foster Wheeler’s Global Engineering & Construction Group will handle equipment and material specifications, development of a cost estimate, and procurement assistance for long-lead items. The FEED is to be complete during second-quarter 2014.

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple