EXPEC Center

The EXPEC Center is the Exploration and Petroleum Engineering Center at Saudi Aramco, located at the company's headquarters in Dhahran, in the Eastern Province of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. It began operations five months before its official inauguration in December 1982.

The center plays a vital role in the technological transformation of Saudi Aramco. It has enabled the company to integrate exploration and petroleum engineering operations into a single hub, alongside equipment and expertise, allowing Aramco to become a global leader in exploration, drilling, and reservoir engineering. Additionally, the company's employees can conduct research on hydrocarbons and the best methods for their production from Aramco's headquarters in Dhahran, rather than relying on external consultants.

In the early stages of Saudi Aramco's operations, the company focused on technology and the establishment of research centers to develop production and drilling techniques. Within the Exploration and Production Division, a group of geologists and petroleum engineers analyze a range of data obtained from seismic surveys, core samples, wireline logs, and other methods. They employ tools ranging from satellite imaging to electron microscopes, with the overarching goal of analyzing this data to determine reservoir characteristics and the structure of its internal layers.

The scientists at EXPEC Center expand their exploration efforts and study the geological nature of reservoirs using various technologies developed within the center. Petroleum engineers at EXPEC view hydrocarbon reservoirs as complex challenges, focusing on finding the best methods to extract fluids from the reservoir. With the advent of multilateral wells and horizontal drilling, understanding the internal structure of reservoirs has become increasingly important.

A hydrocarbon reservoir is similar to a sponge saturated with oil and gas, rather than an underground lake. The size of the pores in this sponge and the degree to which they are interconnected—known as porosity and permeability—are key factors in determining the reservoir's production capacity. Some reservoirs may contain large amounts of hydrocarbons in the pores between the rocks, but if the rock is impermeable, the hydrocarbons may remain trapped inside. This makes understanding porosity and permeability crucial for petroleum engineers.

As technologies advanced and Saudi Aramco aimed to incorporate these innovations into various areas of its operations, the Advanced Research Center at EXPEC was established to lead technological development in the company's exploration and production activities. The center is home to a team of researchers working on discovering new methods in geophysics, geology, reservoir engineering—including enhanced oil recovery techniques—and computational models for reservoirs and drilling. The center has an advisory board, a global body that includes prominent scientists, academics, and industry experts, tasked with reviewing and guiding the center's technical strategy.