Upstream

We’re investing heavily in every area of our business to build a cleaner, greener future. But to remain the world’s largest crude oil exporter, it’s vital that we spend heavily on our upstream activities.

Join in this exciting area of our business and your career could take you almost anywhere.

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Opportunities in upstream

From the Arabian Gulf to the Rub’ al-Khali, we’re maximizing the impact of our resources. Our extensive upstream investments and expanding production infrastructure mean we can meet the energy needs of customers across the world – reliably and cost-effectively, with a strong emphasis on environmental protection. We’re ramping up in investment in new gas plants, so we’ll be more than equal to tomorrow’s accelerating demands for power. In fact, we’re regularly discovering new fields and our offshore wells in the Red Sea are revealing the full potential of hydrocarbon resources in the region.

We’re also ready to release your full potential and give you the career of a lifetime. Read on to discover how you can fit in.

Northern Area Oil Operations (NAOO)

With NAOO, you could find yourself working with the latest techniques on some huge projects. NAOO operates and maintains onshore and offshore production facilities in the northern area, including onshore and offshore gas-oil separation plants (GOSPs), platforms, wells, wet crude handling facilities, and water injection and stabilization facilities. The team is also responsible for the maintenance and operation of oil facilities along the eastern coastline of the Kingdom, as well as the Shaybah field to the south.

Southern Area Oil Operations (SAOO)

Operating across a vast 200,000 square kilometers including a huge variety of fields and platforms, SAOO is the perfect environment in which to take your skills to the next level. SAOO produces and processes all oil across the south area and operates and maintains gas fields in the region, including the Gharwar field. The team is also responsible for overseeing the world’s largest seawater treatment and injection system to maintain reservoir pressure for oil production.

Exploration

A career in exploration will place you at the cutting-edge of technology and innovation. We constantly explore opportunities for production across the Kingdom, focusing on complex onshore and offshore reservoirs and frontier areas in the Red Sea. Our achievements speak for themselves – we’re constantly identifying new fields so we can keep the world powered.

In 1990, the total length of our pipeline system in the Kingdom measured 12,100km. The network now extends nearly 20,000 km, roughly equal to traveling from Riyadh to New York City and back again.
We began using autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) to collect seismic data in shallow waters. Our plan is to cut seismic acquisition costs by 50% and acquisition time by a factor of four, while improving subsurface image fidelity and accuracy at the same time.
We launched the new Exploration Explorer System, this gives our exploration support people all the information they need at their fingertips – resources, types, volumes, locations and depths – saving time, effort and resources.

Unconventional Gas

Unconventional gas has been a game-changer for the petroleum industry. And for us – with significant investment, we have launched a substantial unconventional gas program that has empowered us to assess, develop, and produce gas from shale and tight sand formations.

We will give you the freedom to apply the latest technology across 1.2 million square kilometers of frontier basins – working with source rocks and tight reservoirs associated with the world’s largest oil and gas fields. Joining a multidisciplinary team alongside experts in drilling, completions, geophysics, and geology, you will part of the solution to the world’s energy needs and can quickly become a thought and industry leader.

But solving the challenges of developing unconventional reservoirs will only be part of your role. You will also enjoy collaborating with leading scientists in our Advanced Research Center – a place where the possible becomes the practical and where blue-sky thinking is a way of life.

Red Sea Exploration

We’re moving into exciting new frontier areas in the Red Sea to provide the hydrocarbon resources that power the planet. You can be part of it – applying your skills in pre-salt imaging and mapping, salt tectonics, extensional rift tectonics, or deepwater operations to keep the lights on for everyone. This is still a relatively young division, so you’ll be involved in setting exploration strategies, proving new technologies, and establishing workflows to unlock the secrets beneath the salt.

Drilling & Workover

Drilling operations are literally at the cutting edge of what we do. And right now, we’re expanding our onshore and offshore drilling operations at an unprecedented rate. Join us and you can make your mark on some of the most challenging projects in the industry.

You could find yourself realizing the potential of deep high-pressure/high-temperature wells or complex deep and shallow wells for both oil and gas. We want to ensure timely, cost-effective, and safe drilling of every kind of well, and you will help us make it happen – operating alongside professionals from more than 50 countries and continually sharpening your skills through in-house courses, self-development resources, sponsored graduate degree programs, and professional societies and conferences.

Upstream Professional Development Center (UPDC)

As we explore ever-more-complex fields such as tight gas formations, it’s vital that we deploy the latest technologies. It’s also essential that our people have the very best skills. Our UPDC delivers industry-leading professional development across nine key areas: drilling, facilities engineering, geology, geophysics, petrophysics, production engineering, reservoir engineering, unconventional resources, and upstream computing. Whatever your specialist discipline, we will expand your mind and ensure you remain at the forefront of industry innovation.

Petroleum Engineering and Development

We’re investing heavily in improving our oil exploration technologies, with a focus on subsurface upstream activities. That’s where our dedicated Exploration and Petroleum Engineering Center – Advanced Research Center (EXPEC ARC) comes in. Join our expert team of petroleum engineers and geoscientists and you can create sophisticated 3D reservoir simulation programs, solve complex production issues, reduce completion and decision-making times – and much, much more. In fact, this is the team that developed GigaPOWERS™, the world’s most advanced reservoir modeling technology, which can simulate oil, water, and gas flows deep underground – so the sky is truly the limit.

Gas Operations

Natural gas is increasingly vital to the Kingdom to provide clean energy for our domestic needs and add value to products that will diversify our economy. That’s why we’re continuing to expect our gas operations, with some ambitious plans for the future. You can make them happen.