Saudi Arabia's Oil Minister Ali Al- Naimi said the Kingdom expects to add natural gas reserves next year and boost gas output significantly, which will help drive the development of the country's petrochemicals industry. In a speech on Wednesday at the fourth annual Gulf Petrochemicals and Chemicals Association forum in Dubai, he said Saudi Arabia's proven gas reserves, which stood at 263 trillion cubic feet at the end of 2008, will increase next year as Saudi Arabian Oil Co. (Saudi Aramco) is expected to discover “a minimum of 5 trillion cubic feet of additional non-associated gas reserves annually,” Al- Naimi said. “In 1981, Saudi raw gas production was 1,654 million standard cubic feet per day. Today it is approximately 8,800 mmscfd, and we project production levels to exceed 13,000 mmscfd by 2020,” he said. “This means our investment and management strategies are succeeding in meeting our objective of always staying ahead of demand for natural gas - toward all of its end uses in power generation, desalination and chemical feedstock,” he pointed out. Al-Naimi further said Saudi Arabia currently produces about 62 percent of the GCC chemicals and about 8 percent of global production. “By 2015, the Kingdom's petrochemical production is projected to increase from today's levels of about 60 million tons per year to more than 80 million tons per year,” he added. Direct investments in the Saudi chemical sector are seen surpassing the $100 billion mark by 2015, Al-Naimi further said, citing analyst projections. “The chemical industry in the Gulf is no longer simply operating facilities to manufacture products; it is becoming a key enabler of other industrialization activities, he said.
