Chapter 10 Summary and Analysis

From 1940 to 1968, exploration for oil in Saudi Arabia is extremely successful. Since then, however, Saudi Arabia has had only a few significant discoveries. Some suggest that this is due to a lack of effort on the part of Saudi Aramco. Many people claim that there is plenty of oil in Saudi Arabia, and that Saudi Arabian officials want to manipulate the market and do so, in part, by limiting exploration. Accounts of a continuous exploration effort, detailed in the Society of Petroleum Engineers papers over the years, contradict this claim. Saudi Arabia has led an extensive exploration effort for the past 30 years. The use of modern technology including seismic, magnetic and gravity surveys and advanced model simulations leads to a few major oil discoveries, such as the Hawtah Trend, as well as a few rich gas reserves, but new oil continues...