Background: Saudi Arabia is fast-tracking its first major offshore natural gas fields in the Red Sea, a high-priority project that's seen as the start of a massive new energy program, off the kingdom's west coast. The objective is to produce gas for power-generation to free up for export growing volumes of oil that are being used domestically to cope with a growing domestic demand. In 2012 Saudi Aramco discovered the Ahmar-1 field of non-associated gas in the deep water of the Red Sea approximately 24 kilometers northwest of Duba in the Tabuk Province on the west coast of Saudi Arabia.

Scope of work: To develop Ahmar-1 Saudi Aramco will begin with drilling seven wells out of which three are still in shallow water, not exceeding 100 meters depth, while the remaining four will stand in deep water by more than 1,000 meters depth.The gas should be exported by pipeline to Duba where Saudi Aramco is planning to build a gas central processing facility. From there the question is still opened if the treated gas should stay in Duba to supply power plant and petrochemical complex, or if it should be exported by pipeline to other industrial cities running short of gas such as Yanbu, Jeddah or Jizan. Whatever shall be the decision on the midstream and downstream sides, Saudi Aramco is now running full speed to develop the upstream side of the promising Red Sea in begining with Ahmar-1 gas field development and the Duba gas treatment plant project.

Cost:Saudi Aramco announced $25 billion capital expenditure in exploration production to develop the oil and gas reserves lying in the Red Sea.

Reserve: From the 2D and 3D seismic surveys data accumulated since 2009, Saudi Aramco estimates that Red Sea oil and gas reserves could add 100 billion barrels of oil equivalent (boe) to the 267 billion boe of proven reserves currently declared by Saudi Arabia.