25 Bln Barrels of Heavy Oil in Kuwait & Saudi Wafra Oilfield

International oil expert, Dr. A. Hamid Majid, affirmed that huge reserves of heavy oil exist in the Wafra oilfield between Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, amounting to around 25 billion barrels, which if exploited optimally, could be one of the largest operating steam projects in the world.

Dr. Majid, Special Advisor to the President of Canadian Natural Resources Limited, said in a press release that if Kuwait benefited from the possibilities offered by the technology of heavy oil, it will be able to extract around 1,000 billion barrels of heavy oil, equivalent to 30% of world reserves in the Middle East.

He believes multi-stage hydraulic fracturing technology will spread in oil producing GCC countries and other Arab countries in order to access unconventional resources. Moreover, on the future prospects and risks of investment in oil and natural gas projects in Arab countries, Dr. Majid explained that there is two effects, the first is for the Middle East to witness a change in supply and demand mechanism for its oil and natural gas; with some countries continued efforts to achieve new breakthrough in discovering new materials for local oil and gas.

The second effect is represented in the continued march of new technology applied in other places in the world towards Middle Eastern oil and gas fields. Dr. Majid added that it became economically viable to exploit tighter oil reservoirs now at today’s oil prices, which has also encouraged innovation. He also expects that key producers in the Arab world will increasingly look towards their own domestic demand growth as well as demand from non-OPEC growth from China and India.