State oil giant Saudi Aramco will complete its first offshore non-associated gas field project Karan by 2012, it said in an annual review.

Aramco had said it expected work on Karan to be completed in 2013 with a capacity to process 1.8 billion cubic feet per day of gas.

'When fully operational in 2012, the project will produce 1.8 billion scfd of raw gas,' Aramco said in the review.

It added initial production of 400 million cfd of gas 'planned during peak summer demand (will be) starting in 2011,' in line with previous announcements while output of raw or unprocessed gas is expected to be 1.5 billion cfd by 2012.

Aramco said it produced 9.4 billion cubic feet of gas per day in 2010, up from 8.6 billion cfd in 2009.

The state-owned company continues to focus on raising gas output to meet rising domestic demand for power and petrochemicals.

It is now building two major gas projects, Wasit and Shaybah natural gas liquids (NGL) which will both be completed in 2014.

Domestic demand for gas in the world's largest oil exporter is growing at 5 to 6 per cent annually.-Reuters