UPDATE 1-Saudi 2009 oil capacity plan on track-official

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By Souhail Karam

RIYADH, Jan 6 (Reuters) - State oil giant Saudi Aramco is on track to hit its oil production capacity target of 12 million barrels per day (bpd) in 2009, an Aramco official said on Sunday.

The start of Aramco's 500,000 bpd Khursaniyah oilfield was delayed a few months to the first quarter this year from December last year [ID:nL06732873].

Other expansion projects in the world's largest oil exporter through to 2009 remain on schedule, Aramco's Senior Vice President of Exploration and Production Amin al-Nasser said.

"We are going up to 12 million bpd (oil production capacity) in 2009," Nasser said at a presentation to an energy conference in Riyadh.

Aramco's total output capacity does not include the Saudi share of capacity in the neutral zone between the kingdom and Kuwait. Saudi Arabia is aiming for total output capacity, including the neutral zone, of 12.5 million bpd in 2009.

Saudi Arabia is spending billions on projects to meet growing world demand and maintain spare capacity of 1.5-2 million bpd of oil to deal with any unexpected outages in global supply.

A 250,000 bpd expansion at the Shaybah oilfield and the development of the 100,000 bpd Nuayyim field will add another 350,000 bpd of capacity by the end of 2008, he said.