Do you know anything about the Gwahar oil field?

Question

Have you ever even heard of Gwahar before?

Please be honest, don't go looking information up on the net. I'd like to know if you knew anything about Gwahar, BEFORE you read my question.

If you do know something about Gwahar, how did you come to know about it? What books/articles did you read? What kinds of information do you know?

Answer 1

Yes - I worked for Saudi Aramco for 10 1/2 years.

World's largest proven oil reserve - a sea of oil - that the British couldn't find and the Americans almost missed too.  If Dammam #7 hadn't hit oil, they would have packed up and came home.

Saudi's Ghawar oil field is the world's largest; it's been pumping out oil since 1951 and holds 7 percent of the world's proven reserves. Overall Saudi production has been falling since 2005, yet the number of rigs in use has tripled since 2004. Why is that? Some analysts believe the increased rigs are intended to compensate for declining production from Gwahar. Others argue that the Saudis are operating strategically, shutting their most productive wells as prices rose and opening smaller wells to better manage supply.

Experts have tried to come up with more independent and definitive answers. The Saudis use water injection to increase oil recovery. Some analyses of the water content from the northern part of Ghawar conclude that the water content has risen from 20 percent in the 1940s to 50 percent now, supposedly a sign that yields are about to fall dramatically.

Seeking to resolve this debate, investment research firm Sanford Bernstein performed a satellite analysis of the oil field, reviewing high-resolution images dating back to 2001. The water-injection methods used by the Saudis produce surface depressions when oil reservoirs become depleted. Bernstein found no signs of surface collapse. Instead, it found some areas slightly elevated, which might indicate use of high-pressure recovery, an advanced extraction technique.