HOUSTON—After 12 dry holes and five years of unsuccessful drilling in the deserts of Saudi Arabia several decades ago, when Standard Oil Co. decided to leave, chief geologist Max Steineke urged the team to drill a bit deeper. The resulting well flowed 1,585 barrels of oil and hence began the history of successful discoveries of the world’s largest oil producer.

The Arabian basins embody a huge hydrocarbon source representing around 40% to 50% of all known world oil and gas reserves. However, less than 20% of the oil and gas volumes are thought to have been discovered in the Kingdom’s rich yet complex petroleum systems, leaving a vast amount of potential for undiscovered resources, said Misfir AzZahrani, executive director of exploration for Saudi Aramco, speaking at AAPG’s Super Basins Conference last week.

“I spent my entire career studying, drilling and acquiring data over all the super basins in Saudi Arabia and every day I learn a new thing,” he said. “Today, I think I haven’t learned much because of the amount of data that is coming in and new stories that are unfolding.”

The term ‘super basin’ was coined by Bob Fryklund and Pete Stark of IHS Markit in 2016. The pair defined such a basin as an established producer with at least 5 Bboe produced and about the same volume of recoverable remaining reserves, two or more petroleum systems or source rocks, stacked reservoirs and good access to markets.

AzZahrani pointed out that Arabian ‘super basins,’ which are characterized by extensive source rocks, are contained within the huge massive margin, which is about 2,700 km long and 2,000 km wide, with multiple stacked hydrocarbon systems. He added that the basins have prolific reservoirs with some of the best source rocks in the world. “That doesn’t mean that we don’t have challenging reservoirs,” he said. “[They] are part of our portfolio today for upstream potential.”

The Jafurah Basin, which is located north of Ghawar—the world’s largest oil field, is targeted by Saudi Aramco for its gas development and has moved into commercial-scale production for fractured wells. Another emerging play of the Arabian Basin is the Red Sea, where Aramco recently began acquiring 3D seismic in different phases of exploration. However, geoscientists are unable to fully understand the region because of its geological complexity.

The “Red Sea is very challenging because of the presence of the salt…You have to watch operations, manage pressure while drilling, have to have the best seismic imaging before taking any risk,” AzZahrani explained.

Advancements in geophysics has helped the state-owned company find new fields and oil discoveries. “High-resolution images are telling us where to find stratigraphic plays in areas where we couldn’t find them before,” AzZahrani said. “Our models are coming close to matching simulations because we are understanding the bigger picture in high resolution and the backbone is the computational power.”

He pointed out that Aramco has proved its unconventional resources over the past few years, with results “far better than expected.” Technological advances have helped unlock both structural and stratigraphic trap types, develop new plays and advance in geophysics, enabling high-resolution basin modeling and matching reservoir simulation.