Saudi Aramco is seeking investors in infrastructure, including pipelines, for its $100 billion Jafurah gas project, two people familiar with the matter told Reuters.
The Jafurah project is key to Saudi Aramco's ambitions to become a major global player in natural gas and to boost its gas production capacity by 60% by 2030 from 2021 levels.
Jafurah, potentially the biggest shale gas project outside of the United States, is expected to begin output this year and ramp up to 2 billion cubic feet per day by 2030. U.S. shale gas production in 2024 was around 80 billion cubic feet per day.
Aramco will retain majority ownership of the assets and remain the operator, one of the two people said. The investment in Jafurah will help develop the project, the second person said.
The two people spoke on condition of anonymity because the process is private.
Aramco declined to comment.
The potential deal around Jafurah will allow Aramco to raise funds at a time of falling oil prices and would follow efforts by the oil giant in recent years to place stakes in its infrastructure with funds.
BlackRock and EIG were among investor groups that took minority stakes in Aramco's oil and gas pipeline networks in two separate deals in 2021, helping the firm raise nearly $28 billion.
These groups took 49% stakes in subsidiaries Aramco Oil Pipelines and Aramco Gas Pipelines, in which Aramco retains 51% stakes. The subsidiaries receive a tariff from Aramco for flows of crude and natural gas, backed by minimum commitments on throughput.
For the Jafurah project, Aramco is building infrastructure including a gas processing plant, a natural gas liquids fractionation plant, a gas-compression system, and a network of around 1,500 km (932 miles) of pipelines. Total investments in Jafurah will exceed $100 billion over the next 15 years, Aramco Chief Executive Amin Nasser told local media earlier this year.