The first meeting of the Board of Directors of the South Rub' al-Khali Company, the nation's first upstream natural-gas joint venture, was held recently in Dhahran.
Khalid A. Al-Falih, Saudi Aramco, chaired the debut meeting of the 11-member board on Jan. 10. Members attending the board's first meeting, in addition to Falih, were: Ahmed Al-Ghazzawi, Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources; Ibraheem M. Al-Assaadan, Saudi Aramco; Kamal M. Al-Yahya, Saudi Aramco; Floris Ansingh, Shell; Alain Lechevalier, Total; Bernard Cullet, Total; Ceri Powell, Shell; Lionel Marais, Total; and Patrick Allman-Ward, Shell. Also attending were the board assistant secretaries Nabeel Al-Mansour, Saudi Aramco; and Jonathan Hugo, Shell.
The South Rub' al-Khali Co., a joint venture of Saudi Aramco (30 percent), the Royal Dutch/Shell Group (40 percent) and France's Total (30 percent), was formed to explore, evaluate, develop and produce nonassociated gas, gas liquids and field condensates in two promising areas of the Rub' al-Khali desert. The venture agreement covers 209,160 square kilometers, and provides a production period of 25 years and an overall agreement duration of 40 years.
The venture agreement was signed Nov. 15 at King Fahd Cultural Center in Riyadh.
The South Rub' al-Khali Co. established its head office in al-Khobar and intends to begin seismic acquisition activities and other exploration operations in 2004.
