Ghawar Field is an oil field in Saudi Arabia. It is located about 100 km WSW from the city of Dhahran in the Eastern Province. Measuring 280 km by 30 km, this is by far the largest conventional oil field in the world. The operations and oil recovery have been nationalized in the form of Saudi Aramco. The company and Saudi government carefully guard production reports on a per oil field basis. Much known about the field since nationalization comes from third party sources or former employees. Drilling rig in a small oil field Near Sarnia, Ontario, 2001 An oil field is an area with an abundance of oil wells extracting petroleum (oil) from below ground. ... Road to Dhahrans main gate (Picture taken from Khobar way) Dhahran (Arabic الظهران aẓ-Ẓahrān) is a city in Saudi Arabia located in the countrys Eastern Province not far from the Persian Gulf. ... Eastern Province (Arabic: المنطقة الشرقية al-Mantaqa ash-Sharqiyah) is the largest province of Saudi Arabia, located in the east of the country on the coasts of the Persian Gulf, and has borders with Kuwait, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Oman, and Yemen. ... Saudi Aramco, the national oil company of Saudi Arabia (formerly just Aramco, standing for the Arabian American Oil Company), is the largest oil corporation in the world and the worlds largest in terms of proven crude oil reserves and production. ...

History

Historically Ghawar has been subdivided into five production areas, from north to south, 'Ain Dar and Shedgum, 'Uthmaniyah, Hawiyah and Haradh. The major oasis of Al-Hasa and the city of Al-Hofuf are located on Ghawar's east flank, corresponding to the 'Uthmaniyah production area. Ghawar was discovered in 1948 and put on stream in 1951. Ash Sharqiyah, known as Eastern Province is the largest province of Saudi Arabia, located in the east of the country on the coasts of the Persian Gulf, and has borders with Kuwait, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Oman, and Yemen. ... Hofuf (Arabic: الهفوف) is a common name for the major city also called Al-Hasa or Hassa in the Al-Hasa oasis in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia. ... 1948 (MCMXLVIII) was a leap year starting on Thursday (the link is to a full 1948 calendar). ... 1951 (MCMLI) was a common year starting on Monday; see its calendar. ...

Production

Approximately 60-65% of all Saudi oil produced between 1948 and 2000 came from Ghawar. Cumulative production to the end of 2005 was about 60 billion barrels (based on Croft). Currently, Ghawar is estimated to produce over 5 million barrels (800,000 m³) of oil a day (6.25% of global production). In April, 2006, a Saudi Aramco spokesman admitted that its mature fields are now declining at a rate of 8% per year, and its composite decline rate of producing fields is about 2%[1]. It has been suggested that black gold (oil) be merged into this article or section. ... 1948 (MCMXLVIII) was a leap year starting on Thursday (the link is to a full 1948 calendar). ... This article is about the year 2000. ...

Field Reserves

Saudi Aramco has stated that it has more than 71 billion barrels of proven reserves remaining. Some people, such as Matthew Simmons in his book Twilight in the Desert, suggest that production from the Ghawar field and Saudi Arabia, may soon peak. However, Simmons' work has been strongly criticised by Aramco officials such as Nansen Saleri. Matthew Simmons. ... The Hubbert curve, devised by M. King Hubbert, is a model of future oil availability. ...

See also

• List of oil fields
• Peak Oil

This list of oil fields includes major fields of the past and present. ... The Hubbert peak theory, also known as peak oil, is an influential theory concerning the long-term rate of conventional oil production and depletion. ...

References

• Simmons, Matthew. Twilight in the Desert: The coming Saudi oil shock and the world economy. 2005 ISBN 047173876X
• Saudi Arabian Oil Fields Brimming. SAUDI-US RELATIONS INFORMATION SERVICE. URL accessed on October 2, 2005.
• The Ghawar Oil Field, Saudi Arabia. Greg Croft Inc. URL accessed on March 11, 2006.

Matthew Simmons. ... October 2 is the 275th day (276th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian Calendar, with 90 days remaining. ... 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... 11 March is the 70th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (71st in Leap year). ... 2006 (MMVI) is a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

External links

• A theoretical look at the future of the field
• Terrorists and Ghawar
• Saudi Aramco website (source of most data in this article).