The world’s largest oil exporter will soon start drilling for shale gas, according to numerous media reports. Saudi Arabia is expected to test seven wells for shale this year.
The country’s minister of petroleum and mineral resources Ali Al-Naimi announced the plans during a Credit Suisse conference in Hong Kong.
“We have rough estimates of 600 trillion cubic feet of unconventional shale gas,” Al- Naimi said during the conference, according to a Saudi Gazette report. “The potential is very huge, and we plan to exploit it.”
The minister later told The Wall Street Journal that he expected Saudi Arabia to tap into its shale oil reserves too, though “we have to find them” first.
It isn’t yet clear when Saudi Arabia will begin commercially producing shale gas or oil.
The news follows the well-documented hesitance of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Country (OPEC) to endorse drilling for fracing for oil or shale gas, the Journal notes.
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