SAUDI Aramco has added 200,000 barrels per day (bpd) of Arabian Heavy production from its offshore Manifa field from the middle of the year, and plans to push the field to full capacity in early 2015, an Aramco official says.

The 14 billion barrel field, which began production ahead of schedule last April, increased output from 500,000 bpd to 700,000 bpd, says the official.

Aramco sees the field reaching its plateau of 900,000 bpd by late 2014 or early 2015, the official adds.

The official says that the project, expected to cost up to $15 billion, involved the drilling of wells that exceeded 37,000 feet in an extremely environmentally sensitive marine area.

Manifa was discovered in 1957 but only produced small volumes before it was mothballed. Aramco decided to green light the complicated development last decade as part of its plan to maintain overall company capacity of 12 mbpd. Total Saudi capacity, including 50 per cent of the Neutral Zone shared with Kuwait, is 12.5 mbpd.

Saudi output, including the Neutral Zone, was 9.8 mbpd in December last.

As Manifa has phased in production last year, Aramco planned to decrease production at its other aging fields like the supergiant Ghawar, which started up in 1951.

Aramco also awarded contracts in January for a project to prevent the Berri field, which began in 1967, from declining below 250,000 bpd from the Arab-D reservoir. The Arabian Extra Light field formerly produced over 3.5 mbpd.

Manifa is designed to provide feedstock for the 400,000 bpd Jubail refinery. The $10 billion facility started up in the first half of last year, and was expected to bring on all units by end-2013.

Manifa and the giant offshore Safaniyah, which produces 1.2 mbpd, are blended to create the 28 deg API, 3 per cent sulphur Arabian Heavy feedstock that supplies the Jubail refinery, which is owned by France’s Total and Aramco. The 400,000 bpd Yanbu refinery, being built by Sinopec and Aramco on the kingdom’s west coast, will also run on Arabian Heavy. Start-up is planned for late 2014.

Aramco is building a third 400,000 bpd refinery in the remote southwestern province of Jizan that will run on a combination of Arabian Heavy and Arabian Medium when it begins in 2016. The medium grade will likely come from the offshore Marjan and Zuluf, which together can pump over 1 mbpd.

Aramco is pushing forward with expansion projects at the 18 billion barrel Shaybah, where it will add 250,000 bpd to reach 1 mbpd of capacity by 2016 or 2017. It is also planning to boost capacity at 28 billion barrel Khurais from 1.2 mbpd to 1.5 mbpd by 2016. Like Manifa, neither project will push overall capacity above 12 mbpd.

The Manifa crude oil increment has been a monumental achievement in company history in terms of production, technology and manpower. For the first time in the company’s history, a programme has combined onshore, offshore and a causeway in a single project.

In addition, the project has broken world records in reservoir engineering, drilling and well servicing.

Two world records were set in the Manifa field by drilling the deepest 61/8-inch hole section to over 37,000 feet and deploying the longest 7-inch liner with a length of over 18,000 feet to a depth of 26,000 feet.

The project consists of 41 km of causeways, three     of bridges, 27 drilling islands, 13 offshore platforms, 15 onshore drill sites, water supply wells, injection facilities, multiple pipelines and a 420 MW heat and electricity plant.

Saudi Aramco hired 360 young Saudis to operate and maintain Manifa under the supervision of more experienced company employees. The new hires represent the company’s varied operations and include engineers, operators and maintenance personnel who have had extensive classroom and practical training, as well as hands-on experience in similar operations.

The project’s innovative engineering design was created to optimise the field’s production capacity, while caring for the environment.