The Future of Saudi Oil Production
The Wall St. Journal has an excellent article on the future of Saudi oil production. Unfortunately, the text is behind a pay-wall, for subscribers only. (Hasn’t the WSJ’s new owner said he was going to change that?)
The article notes that the Kingdom is now beginning to exploit its second major oil field, the Khurais complex, a major field smaller only than the Ghawar. This field is far more difficult to access, largely because it is not a high-pressure field like Ghawar which, once tapped, simply shoots its contents upwards, resulting in some of the lowest pumping costs in the world. Instead, exploitation will require the pumping of filtered sea water—at a volume of two barrels of water in for each barrel of oil out—to help push the oil to the surface. The project involves many multi-national companies taking on parts of the work, and yes, Halliburton is one of them.