Saudi Arabia’s energy minister, Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman, recently stated that the world’s top crude exporter had identified four new oil and gas reserves.

Oil has been discovered at Al Ajramiyah Well No. 1, with a daily production rate of 3,850 barrels per day according to a well test. The well is located in the Northern Borders Province, north-west of the city of Rafhaa.

At Well No. 2 in the Al Reesh oil field, north of Dhahran, Saudi’s Aramco discovered 4,452 barrels of unconventional Arab extra light sweet oil and 3.2 million standard cubic feet of gas. In a released statement, the discovery at Al Reesh is considered important “as it shows that it is possible to produce Arab extra light crude oil at the Tuwaiq mountain formation.”

Aramco has drilled two more wells, No. 3 and No. 4, at Al Reesh to assess its size. Initially, Well No. 3 is producing 2,745 barrels of oil and 3 million cubic feet of gas per day. Well No. 4 is now producing 3,654 barrels per day and 1.6 million cubic feet of natural gas.

Non-conventional gas has also been discovered in the Al Sarrah reservoir in the Al Minahhaz well, located south-west of the Ghawar oil field, and at the al-Sahbaa well, located south of Ghawar. The Al Minahhaz well has a daily capacity of 18 million standard cubic feet of gas and 98 barrels of condensate, while the al-Sahbaa well has a capacity of 32 million standard cubic feet.

According to the Prince, “[Aramco] continues to work on determining the size and volume of discovered fields and estimating the amount of oil, gas, and condensate in these fields. [The discoveries] underline the wealth of natural resources the kingdom has at its disposal.”

Saudi Arabia has around 17% of the world’s proven petroleum reserves. The oil and gas industry accounts for over half of the country’s gross domestic product and 70% of export revenues.