Jafurah Gas Field
Saudi Arabia's largest non-associated gas field in the Eastern Province, central to the Kingdom's strategy of expanding gas production to free oil for export and support petrochemicals growth.
Definition
The Jafurah Gas Field is a vast unconventional (tight) gas reservoir in Saudi Arabia’s Eastern Province, being developed by Saudi Aramco with an estimated investment of USD 110 billion, designed to produce 2 billion standard cubic feet of gas per day and position the Kingdom as a major gas and chemicals exporter.
Overview
Discovered and delineated by Saudi Aramco, the Jafurah basin covers approximately 17,000 square kilometres south of the Ghawar oil field. The field contains substantial reserves of unconventional tight gas and significant volumes of gas liquids and condensate. Development of Jafurah represents Saudi Arabia’s most ambitious natural gas project and its first large-scale unconventional gas development.
Aramco began construction work on the Jafurah project in 2021, with initial gas production expected to ramp up through the mid-2020s toward a plateau of 2 billion standard cubic feet per day by 2030. The gas will be processed to extract ethane and natural gas liquids for the petrochemicals industry, with sales gas directed to power generation and industrial use. A key byproduct is blue hydrogen, which Aramco plans to produce in combination with carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology.
The project’s scale requires enormous infrastructure investment, including gas processing plants, pipelines, water treatment facilities, and export terminals. Jafurah is strategically important because Saudi Arabia has historically burned crude oil for power generation — an economically wasteful practice — and gas substitution frees high-value oil barrels for export or refining.
Key Facts
| Fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Location | Eastern Province, south of Ghawar |
| Area | ~17,000 km² |
| Developer | Saudi Aramco |
| Investment | ~USD 110 billion |
| Production Target | 2 bcf/day by 2030 |
| Gas Type | Unconventional (tight gas) |
| Key Products | Gas, ethane, NGL, condensate, blue hydrogen |
| Construction Start | 2021 |
Role in Vision 2030
Jafurah is a strategic enabler of Vision 2030’s energy and industrial objectives. By developing domestic gas supply, the project supports three critical goals: replacing crude oil burned in power generation with gas (freeing oil for export revenue), providing ethane feedstock for petrochemical industry expansion, and establishing Saudi Arabia as a blue hydrogen producer in the emerging global clean energy market.
The project also generates significant economic activity and employment in the Eastern Province, contributes to non-oil GDP through the chemicals value chain, and demonstrates Aramco’s technical capability in unconventional resource development — a skill set with global commercial applications.