Despite nearly two years of low oil prices, Saudi Aramco boosted its crude production to an all time high last year.
In its 2015 annual review, Saudi Aramco said it produced an average of 10.2 million barrels of crude per day, up from 9.5 million bpd in 2014 and all time high for the company.
The state-owned company’s crude exports average 7.1 million barrels per day last year.
Total raw gas processing hit a record high of 11.6 billion standard cubic feet per day (scfd), up slightly from 11.3 billion scfd in 2014.
Natural gas liquids production was 1.3 million bpd and the company’s worldwide refining capacity stood at 5.4 million bpd for 2015.
Total NGL production rose slightly from year-ago levels to 474.4 million barrels for 2015.
Saudi Aramco’s share of refining capacity was 3.1 million bpd last year.
Total hydrocarbon production, a category that includes crude oil, sales gas, ethane, NGL and condensate, averaged 12.8 million bpd last year.
Supplies of sales gas averaged 8 billion scfd and ethane averaged 794 million scfd.
The company said its maximum sustainable crude oil production capacity now sits at 12 million bpd.
Crude oil and condensate reserves hit 261.1 billion barrels while gas reserves were 297.6 trillion scf.
“We continue to explore for and discover additional crude oil and gas reservoirs — striving to replace 100% of produced oil with new reserves and growing reserves annually,” Saudi Aramco said.
The company’s workforce climbed to a four-year high of 65,266 last year.
In 2015, Saudi Aramco discovered five new oil and gas fields, raising its total number of discovered oil and gas fields in the kingdom to 134.
Earlier this year, the company announced that it was studying a possible initial public offering that would likely see the kingdom’s government retain a majority stake.
“As the country transitions to a more diversified economy — one based on new industries, innovation, and knowledge — it is our responsibility to manage the resource base for the greater benefit of the country and for energy consumers around the world,” Saudi Aramco said.
Saudi Arabia declined to participate in a proposed production freeze agreement with other OPEC producers earlier this year after Iran refused to sign on.
OPEC members are scheduled to meet in Vienna on June 2.
Low oil prices prompted Fitch Ratings to downgrade Saudi Arabia’s long-term foreign and local currency Issuer Default Ratings to AA- from AA earlier this year.
Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Finance said in December that oil revenues stood at about $118 billion for the fiscal year of 2015, accounting for 73 percent of the government’s revenues but down 23 percent from 2014.
