Saudi Arabia stops Oil Expansion Plan, Switches to Natural Gas

Saudi Arabia has stopped $100bn expansion of its oil production capacity after reaching a target of 12m barrels a day and now plans to shift its spending priorities to natural gas, refining and the chemicals business, media reports said.

Expectation that new oil resources like Libya and Irqa will meet rising demand has been cited as the reason behind this decision.

Libya has resumed oil production and Iraq is coming out as the biggest contributor to the global oil supply growth between 2010 and 2035, adding more than 5 million barrels a day.

The kingdom is, therefore, not pushing ahead with an assumed expansion plan to produce 15 million barrels a day by the end of 2020.