The ``Khursaniyah field is coming on this month and within a month will be at 300,000 barrels a day,'' Abdulaziz al-Judaimi, vice president of new business development at Saudi Aramco, said today at the World National Oil Companies conference in London. Development work at the Khursaniyah field, on the east coast, will eventually add 500,000 barrels a day to the country's production capacity.


Aramco will add a further 250,000 barrels a day by the end of the year when its 500,000 barrel-a-day Shaybah oil field expansion, in the desert known as Rub al Khali, or Empty Quarter, is complete. ``Shaybah will come on in December,'' al-Judaimi said.

Saudi Arabia is funneling about $90 billion of its oil wealth back into oil production and refining activities in the next five years in an effort to retain its status as the world's largest oil exporter. It pumped about 9.2 million barrels of crude a day last month, according to Bloomberg estimates.

The company is on track to boost its production capacity to at least 12 million barrels a day next year, al-Judaimi said.

Work is proceeding as planned on the 900,000 barrel-a-day Manifa field and the 1.2 million barrel-a-day Khurais project, he said. Aramco will also consider new refining projects, particularly in the U.S. and China, the world's two biggest oil consumers.