Saudi Aramco Says Oil Reserves Steady, Output At Record Ahead Of IPO

Ethane production, the favourite feedstock for petrochemicals, was also higher at 920 million scfd from 794 million scfd in 2015.

Saudi Aramco plans to double gas production to 23 billion scfd in a decade by including "unconventional gas" in the mix and by continuing to develop gas not associated with oil to help it limit the use of oil in power generation and provide feedstock to the petrochemical industry it is keen to grow.

It said over 40 percent of non-associated gas came from offshore fields Hasbah and Arabiyah.

Progress continued in unconventional gas, as the company completed wells in northern Saudi Arabia to deliver 55 million scfd of gas by the end of this year to industrial and electrical power facilities in the Wa'ad Al Shamal industrial city, a phosphate project run by Saudi mining firm Ma'aden.

The Midyan gas project in northwest Saudi Arabia, a region rich in iron ore deposits, is almost complete, Aramco said, while on the oil side, the expansion of Arab Light Khurais oilfield to 1.5 million bpd will be onstream by mid-2018.

Midyan was discovered in the 1980s and has significant reserves.

(Reporting by Reem Shamseddine; Editing by Rania El Gamal, David Evans and Mark Potter)