Saudi Aramco Sees Shale Gas as Kingdom's Next Energy Bonanza

  • Top oil exporter targets 15-fold surge in unconventional gas
  • Aramco to inject seawater to unlock gas in crude-rich east

Photographer: Simon Dawson/Bloomberg

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The world’s biggest oil exporter is ramping up efforts to develop natural gas with plans for a 15-fold boost in output from unconventional deposits of the fuel.

Saudi Aramco is building facilities to tap shale gas in the kingdom’s oil-rich eastern region and is making “a lot of progress” toward this goal, Chief Executive Officer Amin Nasser told reporters in Dammam, Saudi Arabia. Plans include a plant to desalinate seawater that Aramco can then inject underground to frack for gas.